CN117793920A

CN117793920A - Autonomous uplink with analog beams

Info

Publication number: CN117793920A
Application number: CN202410003806.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: K·巴塔德; J·孙; 张晓霞; Y·魏; T·卡多斯; S·耶拉玛利; T·罗
Original assignee: Qualcomm Inc
Current assignee: Qualcomm Inc
Priority date: 2018-01-31
Filing date: 2019-01-29
Publication date: 2024-03-29
Also published as: CN111656849A; US20190239202A1; EP3747234A1; US10939441B2; US20210160845A1; WO2019152414A1; US11622353B2; CN111656849B

Abstract

A base station may be configured with an Autonomous Uplink (AUL) resource set for a particular base station to receive beams, or the AUL resources may be configured for a particular User Equipment (UE) or group of users. Additionally, the AUL resources may be configured to include a sensing portion, a data portion, or both. As an example, the UE may receive an AUL configuration that includes an indication of a set of AUL resources specific to the base station receive beam. The UE may then determine that the set of AUL resources is available and perform an AUL transmission of uplink data using the set of beam-specific AUL resources. Additionally or alternatively, the UE may perform AUL transmission with respective portions including the sensing signal and uplink data. The base station may use the sense signal to determine a receive beam on which to receive uplink data.

Description

Autonomous uplink with analog beams

The present application is a divisional application of application name "autonomous uplink with analog beam" with application date 2019, 1-29, application number 201980010788.5 (international application number PCT/US 2019/015667).

Cross reference

This patent application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application No.62/624,229 entitled "Autonomous Uplink with Analog Beams (autonomous uplink with analog beam)" filed by Bhattad et al at 2018, month 1, and U.S. patent application No.16/258,938 entitled "Autonomous Uplink with Analog Beams (autonomous uplink with analog beam)" filed by Bhattad et al at 2019, month 1, each of which is assigned to the assignee of the present application.

Background

The following relates generally to wireless communications, and more particularly to Autonomous Uplink (AUL) employing analog beams.

Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be able to support communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple access systems include fourth generation (4G) systems such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, LTE-advanced (LTE-a) systems, or LTE-a Pro systems, and fifth generation (5G) systems, which may be referred to as New Radio (NR) systems. These systems may employ various techniques such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), or discrete fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-S-OFDM). A wireless multiple-access communication system may include several base stations or network access nodes, each supporting communication for multiple communication devices, which may be otherwise referred to as User Equipment (UEs), simultaneously.

In some wireless communication systems, wireless devices (e.g., base stations, UEs, etc.) may communicate using directional transmissions (e.g., beams), where beamforming techniques may be applied using one or more antenna elements to form beams in a particular direction. In such systems, the base station may schedule uplink transmissions for the UE on the set of resources, and the base station may then listen in the direction of the UE's scheduled transmissions, e.g., by forming a receive beam in that direction. However, in the case of an AUL (e.g., grant-less or unscheduled) transmission, the base station may not know the direction (and corresponding receive beam) of the directional transmission for the listening UE, resulting in lost uplink data and inefficiency in managing the AUL transmission from the UE.

SUMMARY

The described technology relates to improved methods, systems, devices or apparatus supporting Autonomous Uplink (AUL) employing analog beams. In general, the described techniques provide for configuration of resources for AUL transmissions by a User Equipment (UE). For example, a base station may configure a set of AUL resources for a particular base station receive beam, or the AUL resources may be configured for a particular UE or user group. Additionally, the AUL resources may be configured to include different portions, such as a sensing portion (e.g., including an AUL indicator), a data portion, or both. The use of the configured AUL resources may enable the UE to perform AUL transmission with minimal overhead, and the base station may efficiently determine a reception beam for receiving uplink data from the UE according to the AUL configuration.

As an example, the UE may receive an AUL configuration that includes an indication of a set of AUL resources specific to an AUL receive beam at the base station. The UE may then determine that the set of AUL resources is available and perform an AUL transmission of uplink data to the base station using the set of beam-specific AUL resources. Since the set of AUL resources may be specific to the AUL receive beam, the base station may receive AUL transmissions according to the AUL configuration (e.g., on the base station receive beam corresponding to the AUL resources). Additionally or alternatively, upon receiving the UE-specific AUL configuration, the UE may perform an AUL transmission that includes a first portion and a second portion, the first portion including the sensing signal and the second portion including uplink data. The base station may then use the sense signal to determine the appropriate receive beam to receive the uplink data in the AUL transmission. In some examples, the UE may receive a trigger signal from the base station indicating whether the set of AUL resources is available for AUL transmission.

A method for wireless communication is described. The method may include receiving, from a base station, an AUL configuration including an indication of an AUL resource set for a UE, wherein the AUL resource set is specific to an AUL receive beam of the base station; identifying uplink data for an AUL transmission to the base station; determining whether a beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for AUL transmissions by the UE; and performing an AUL transmission of uplink data to the base station using the beam-specific set of AUL resources based on the determination that the beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for the AUL transmission.

An apparatus for wireless communication is described. The apparatus may include means for receiving, from a base station, an AUL configuration including an indication of an AUL resource set for a UE, wherein the AUL resource set is specific to an AUL receive beam of the base station; means for identifying uplink data for an AUL transmission to a base station; means for determining whether a beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for an AUL transmission by a UE; and means for performing an AUL transmission of uplink data to the base station using the beam-specific set of AUL resources based on the determination that the beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for the AUL transmission.

Another apparatus for wireless communication is described. The apparatus may include a processor, a memory in electronic communication with the processor, and instructions stored in the memory. The instructions are operable to cause the processor to receive, from the base station, an AUL configuration including an indication of an AUL resource set for the UE, wherein the AUL resource set is specific to an AUL receive beam of the base station; identifying uplink data for an AUL transmission to the base station; determining whether a beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for AUL transmissions by the UE; and performing an AUL transmission of uplink data to the base station using the beam-specific set of AUL resources based on the determination that the beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for the AUL transmission.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium for wireless communication is described. The non-transitory computer readable medium may include instructions operable to cause a processor to: receiving, from the base station, an AUL configuration including an indication of an AUL resource set for the UE, wherein the AUL resource set is specific to an AUL receive beam of the base station; identifying uplink data for an AUL transmission to the base station; determining whether a beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for AUL transmissions by the UE; and performing an AUL transmission of uplink data to the base station using the beam-specific set of AUL resources based on the determination that the beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for the AUL transmission.

Some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may further include processes, features, means or instructions for: a trigger signal associated with a beam-specific set of AUL resources is received from a base station. Some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may further include processes, features, means or instructions for: a beam-specific set of AUL resources is determined to be available for an AUL transmission by a UE based on a trigger signal, wherein the AUL transmission may be performed based on the received trigger signal.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, determining that a set of beam-specific AUL resources is available for AUL transmission includes determining that a set of beam-specific AUL resources may be available based on a signal strength of a trigger signal meeting a threshold.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, determining that a set of beam-specific AUL resources is available for AUL transmission includes determining that a set of beam-specific AUL resources is available for AUL transmission based on a presence or absence of a trigger signal.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, determining that a beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for AUL transmission includes decoding a trigger signal. Some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may further include processes, features, means or instructions for: a beam-specific set of AUL resources is determined to be available for AUL transmission based on the decoding.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the trigger signal includes one or more of the following: radio Resource Control (RRC) messaging, downlink Control Information (DCI), downlink messaging, physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), reference signals, or signaling within a synchronization signal burst.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the PDCCH indicates a subset of the AUL resources that may be available within a beam-specific set of AUL resources. In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the PDCCH indicates a second trigger signal associated with a beam-specific AUL resource set, wherein the second trigger signal may be used to determine whether the beam-specific AUL resource set is available for an AUL transmission by a UE.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the second trigger signal includes a second reference signal, or signaling within a burst of synchronization signals, or a combination thereof. In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the beam-specific set of AUL resources may be Time Division Multiplexed (TDM) with a second set of AUL resources, where the second set of AUL resources may be specific to a second AUL of the base station receiving the beam.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the AUL transmission includes a first portion and a second portion, the first portion not overlapping a portion of a second set of AUL resources and the second portion at least partially overlapping the second set of AUL resources, wherein the second set of AUL resources may be specific to a second AUL receive beam of the base station.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, performing the AUL transmission may include transmitting uplink data within the first portion and the second portion, and transmitting an AUL indicator within the first portion, wherein the AUL indicator may be multiplexed with the uplink data. In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the AUL indicator is used as a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) for uplink data.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the AUL indicator includes transmission information including an indication of a priority of uplink data, a waveform for a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), a Redundancy Version (RV), a time/frequency resource allocation for subsequent uplink data transmissions, UE identity information, transmit beam information, an indication of a preferred receive beam to be used to receive the AUL transmission, or a combination thereof.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the transmission information may be carried at least in part by scrambling codes associated with the AUL indicators, orthogonal cover codes associated with the AUL indicators, cyclic shifts associated with the AUL indicators, frequency combs associated with the AUL indicators, or a combination thereof.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, receiving the AUL configuration includes: one or more of the following is received: an RRC message constituting an AUL configuration, DCI constituting an AUL configuration, or a trigger signal constituting an AUL configuration.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the AUL configuration includes a trigger signal configuration that is used to determine time/frequency resources associated with the trigger signal and process the trigger signal. In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the AUL receive beam comprises a millimeter wave (mmW) communication beam.

A method for wireless communication is described. The method may include identifying a set of AUL resources for a UE; determining an AUL configuration for the set of AUL resources and one or more AUL receive beams of the base station, wherein the set of AUL resources is specific to the AUL receive beams of the base station; transmitting an AUL configuration to the UE, the AUL configuration including an indication of a beam-specific set of AUL resources; and receiving an AUL transmission from the UE according to the AUL configuration, wherein the AUL transmission is received using the beam-specific AUL resource set and the AUL receive beam.

An apparatus for wireless communication is described. The apparatus may include means for identifying an AUL resource set for a UE; means for determining an AUL configuration for an AUL resource set and one or more AUL receive beams of the base station, wherein the AUL resource set is specific to the AUL receive beams of the base station; means for transmitting an AUL configuration to the UE, the AUL configuration including an indication of a beam-specific set of AUL resources; and means for receiving an AUL transmission from the UE according to an AUL configuration, wherein the AUL transmission is received using the beam-specific AUL resource set and the AUL receive beam.

Another apparatus for wireless communication is described. The apparatus may include a processor, a memory in electronic communication with the processor, and instructions stored in the memory. The instructions are operable to cause the processor to: identifying a set of AUL resources for the UE; determining an AUL configuration for the set of AUL resources and one or more AUL receive beams of the base station, wherein the set of AUL resources is specific to the AUL receive beams of the base station; transmitting an AUL configuration to the UE, the AUL configuration including an indication of a beam-specific set of AUL resources; and receiving an AUL transmission from the UE according to the AUL configuration, wherein the AUL transmission is received using the beam-specific AUL resource set and the AUL receive beam.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium for wireless communication is described. The non-transitory computer readable medium may include instructions operable to cause a processor to: identifying a set of AUL resources for the UE; determining an AUL configuration for the set of AUL resources and one or more AUL receive beams of the base station, wherein the set of AUL resources is specific to the AUL receive beams of the base station; transmitting an AUL configuration to the UE, the AUL configuration including an indication of a beam-specific set of AUL resources; and receiving an AUL transmission from the UE according to the AUL configuration, wherein the AUL transmission is received using the beam-specific AUL resource set and the AUL receive beam.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, transmitting the AUL configuration includes: transmitting one or more of the following: an RRC message constituting an AUL configuration, DCI constituting an AUL configuration, or a trigger signal constituting an AUL configuration.

Some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may further include processes, features, means or instructions for: a beam-specific set of AUL resources is determined to be available for an AUL transmission by the UE. Some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may further include processes, features, means or instructions for: a trigger signal is transmitted that includes an indication that the beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for AUL transmission based on the determination that the beam-specific set of AUL resources is available.

Some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may further include processes, features, means or instructions for: the trigger signal is transmitted using a transmit beam corresponding to the AUL receive beam. In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the trigger signal includes RRC messaging, DCI, downlink messaging, PDCCH, reference signal, synchronization signal burst, or a combination thereof.

Some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may further include processes, features, means or instructions for: the trigger signal configuration is transmitted within the AUL configuration, wherein the trigger signal configuration includes an indication of time/frequency resources associated with the trigger signal and information for processing the trigger signal.

Some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may further include processes, features, means or instructions for: the beam-specific set of AUL resources is configured to be time division multiplexed with a second set of AUL resources, wherein the second set of AUL resources may be specific to a second AUL receive beam of the base station.

Some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may further include processes, features, means or instructions for: the beam-specific set of AUL resources is configured to include a first portion and a second portion, the first portion not overlapping a portion of the second set of AUL resources and the second portion at least partially overlapping the second set of AUL resources, wherein the second set of AUL resources may be specific to a second AUL receive beam of the base station.

Some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may further include processes, features, means or instructions for: an AUL indicator from the UE is received within a first portion of the AUL transmission, wherein the AUL indicator is multiplexed with uplink data in a first portion of a beam-specific set of AUL resources.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the AUL indicator includes an indication of a priority of uplink data, a waveform for PUSCH, MCS, RV, time/frequency resource allocation for subsequent uplink data transmissions, UE identity information, transmit beam information, an indication of a preferred receive beam to be used to receive the AUL transmission, or a combination thereof.

A method for wireless communication is described. The method may include receiving, from a base station, an AUL configuration including an indication of an AUL resource set for a UE; identifying uplink data for an AUL transmission to the base station; and performing an AUL transmission using the AUL resource set, wherein a first portion of the AUL transmission includes the sense signal and a second portion of the AUL transmission includes the uplink data.

An apparatus for wireless communication is described. The apparatus may include means for receiving, from a base station, an AUL configuration including an indication of an AUL resource set for a UE; means for identifying uplink data for an AUL transmission to a base station; and means for performing an AUL transmission using the set of AUL resources, wherein a first portion of the AUL transmission includes the sensing signal and a second portion of the AUL transmission includes the uplink data.

Another apparatus for wireless communication is described. The apparatus may include a processor, a memory in electronic communication with the processor, and instructions stored in the memory. The instructions are operable to cause the processor to: receiving an AUL configuration including an indication of an AUL resource set for the UE from the base station; identifying uplink data for an AUL transmission to the base station; and performing an AUL transmission using the AUL resource set, wherein a first portion of the AUL transmission includes the sense signal and a second portion of the AUL transmission includes the uplink data.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium for wireless communication is described. The non-transitory computer readable medium may include instructions operable to cause a processor to: receiving an AUL configuration including an indication of an AUL resource set for the UE from the base station; identifying uplink data for an AUL transmission to the base station; and performing an AUL transmission using the AUL resource set, wherein a first portion of the AUL transmission includes the sense signal and a second portion of the AUL transmission includes the uplink data.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, performing AUL transmissions includes: the AUL transmission is performed using one or more repetitions of uplink data on the AUL resource set. In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, performing AUL transmissions includes: the AUL transmission is performed using one or more reference signals within the first portion of the AUL transmission, the sense signals constituting the one or more reference signals.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the one or more reference signals include Sounding Reference Signals (SRS), or DMRS, or a combination thereof. In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, a first portion of an AUL transmission may be time-division multiplexed with a second portion, and wherein the uplink data includes one or more additional reference signals.

Some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may further include processes, features, means or instructions for: a trigger signal is received in response to the transmitted sense signal, the trigger signal including an indication that the set of AUL resources is available for an AUL transmission by the UE. Some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may further include processes, features, means or instructions for: performing AUL transmission based on received trigger signal

In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the trigger signal includes a sensing resource identifier, UE identity information, a beam identity, an uplink resource allocation corresponding to a beam set, a waveform for PUSCH, or a combination thereof.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the sensing signal includes an AUL indicator that includes transmission information including an indication of priority of uplink data, a waveform for PUSCH, MCS, RV, time/frequency resource allocation for subsequent data transmissions, UE identity information, transmit beam information, an indication of a receive beam to be used to receive the AUL transmission, or a combination thereof.

A method for wireless communication is described. The method may include transmitting, to the UE, an AUL configuration including an indication of an AUL resource set for the UE; receiving an AUL transmission from the UE over an AUL resource set, wherein a first portion of the AUL transmission includes a sense signal and a second portion of the AUL transmission includes uplink data; and determining an AUL receive beam for receiving a second portion of the AUL transmission, the AUL receive beam corresponding to the set of AUL resources, wherein the AUL receive beam is determined based on the sensing signal.

An apparatus for wireless communication is described. The apparatus may include means for transmitting, to a UE, an AUL configuration including an indication of an AUL resource set for the UE; means for receiving an AUL transmission from the UE over an AUL resource set, wherein a first portion of the AUL transmission includes a sensing signal and a second portion of the AUL transmission includes uplink data; and means for determining an AUL receive beam for receiving the second portion of the AUL transmission, the AUL receive beam corresponding to the AUL resource set, wherein the AUL receive beam is determined based on the sense signal.

Another apparatus for wireless communication is described. The apparatus may include a processor, a memory in electronic communication with the processor, and instructions stored in the memory. The instructions are operable to cause the processor to: transmitting to the UE an AUL configuration including an indication of an AUL resource set for the UE; receiving an AUL transmission from the UE over an AUL resource set, wherein a first portion of the AUL transmission includes a sense signal and a second portion of the AUL transmission includes uplink data; and determining an AUL receive beam for receiving a second portion of the AUL transmission, the AUL receive beam corresponding to the set of AUL resources, wherein the AUL receive beam is determined based on the sensing signal.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium for wireless communication is described. The non-transitory computer readable medium may include instructions operable to cause a processor to: transmitting to the UE an AUL configuration including an indication of an AUL resource set for the UE; receiving an AUL transmission from the UE over an AUL resource set, wherein a first portion of the AUL transmission includes a sense signal and a second portion of the AUL transmission includes uplink data; and determining an AUL receive beam for receiving a second portion of the AUL transmission, the AUL receive beam corresponding to the set of AUL resources, wherein the AUL receive beam is determined based on the sensing signal.

Some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may further include processes, features, means or instructions for: one or more sensing signals corresponding to the set of AUL beams are monitored, wherein a plurality of beam directions may be monitored in a first portion of the AUL transmission. Some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may further include processes, features, means or instructions for: an AUL receive beam for receiving a second portion of the AUL transmission is determined based on the monitoring.

Some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may further include processes, features, means or instructions for: one or more sensing signals corresponding to the set of AUL beams are monitored, wherein different beam directions may be monitored in respective time-multiplexed portions of the AUL transmission. Some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may further include processes, features, means or instructions for: an AUL receive beam for receiving a second portion of the AUL transmission is determined based on the monitoring.

Some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may further include processes, features, means or instructions for: a trigger signal is transmitted in response to the received sense signal, the trigger signal including an indication that the set of AUL resources is available for AUL transmission. Some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may further include processes, features, means or instructions for: an AUL transmission is received based on the transmitted trigger signal.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the trigger signal may be transmitted using a transmit beam corresponding to an AUL receive beam used to receive the second portion of the AUL transmission. In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the trigger signal includes a sensing resource identifier, UE identity information, a beam identity, an uplink resource allocation corresponding to a beam set, a waveform for PUSCH, or a combination thereof.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the AUL transmission includes one or more repetitions of uplink data on an AUL resource set. In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the sensing signal includes one or more reference signals transmitted within a first portion of the AUL transmission. In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, a first portion of an AUL transmission may be time-division multiplexed with a second portion, and wherein the uplink data includes one or more additional reference signals.

Brief Description of Drawings

Fig. 1 illustrates an example of a wireless communication system supporting Autonomous Uplink (AUL) employing analog beams in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 2 illustrates an example of a wireless communication system supporting AUL employing analog beams in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 3A and 3B illustrate examples of AUL resource configurations in a system supporting AUL employing analog beams in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 4A and 4B illustrate examples of AUL resource configurations in a system supporting AUL employing analog beams in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 5 illustrates an example of a process flow in a system supporting AUL employing analog beams in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 6 through 8 illustrate block diagrams of devices supporting AUL employing analog beams, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 9 illustrates a block diagram of a system including a User Equipment (UE) supporting AUL employing an analog beam, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 10 through 12 illustrate block diagrams of devices supporting AUL employing analog beams, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 13 illustrates a block diagram of a system including a base station supporting AUL employing analog beams, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 14-19 illustrate a method for employing an AUL of an analog beam in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

Some wireless communication systems may operate in the millimeter wave (mmW) frequency range (e.g., 28 gigahertz (GHz), 40GHz, 60 GHz). Wireless communications at these frequencies may be associated with increased signal attenuation (e.g., path loss), which may be affected by various factors such as temperature, air pressure, diffraction, etc. As a result, the transmission may be beamformed to overcome the path loss experienced at these frequencies. Wireless devices within such systems may communicate accordingly through these directional beams (e.g., which are beamformed for transmission and reception using an antenna array at the wireless device). For example, a base station and a User Equipment (UE) may communicate over beam-to-link (BPL), each BPL including a transmit beam of one wireless node (e.g., UE) and a receive beam of a second wireless node (e.g., base station).

The base station and the UE may communicate using uplink transmissions from the UE to the base station and downlink transmissions from the base station to the UE. Uplink transmissions may be scheduled by sending an uplink grant to the UE that signals to the UE that it may transmit uplink data on the configured or scheduled resources. However, the UE may also have the capability to perform Autonomous Uplink (AUL) transmission of uplink messages (e.g., grant-less or unscheduled transmissions). AUL may refer to a procedure by which a UE transmits an uplink signal to a base station without having to first receive an uplink grant, and the AUL functionality may be configured using Radio Resource Control (RRC) messaging.

In some cases, multiple UEs may share time domain AUL resources, allowing respective base stations to receive multiple AUL transmissions simultaneously (e.g., from different UEs in different directions). However, the base station may have the capacity to use one beam at a time for reception, or the base station may receive transmissions on a beam only if it is monitoring the path of that beam (e.g., in a particular direction using the corresponding reception beam). In some cases, although the same AUL resources may be configured for multiple UEs, there may be no UE transmitting uplink data, or there may be only one UE transmitting uplink data. The base station may therefore not be aware of the AUL transmission on a certain beam or may not be aware that the UE is performing an AUL transmission. Thus, the base station may lose the AUL transmission, for example, if other transmissions in different directions are being monitored or received. In addition, different AUL resources may be allocated for different beams. But such allocation may add significant overhead due to the potentially large number of beams. In this case, supporting the AUL may be expensive because the base station may need to coordinate tuning of a particular receive beam during the time that the corresponding UE is configured with the AUL resources. Furthermore, if the base station is already busy monitoring uplink traffic on the receive beam associated with the AUL resources, other UEs may not be able to use the AUL resources during this time.

As described herein, the AUL resources may be configured such that a base station may coherently receive AUL transmissions from individual UEs while minimizing overhead. For example, the base station may configure a first set of AUL resources for a first beam, a second set of AUL resources for a second beam, and so on. That is, the base station may configure the AUL resources in a beam-specific manner. The base station may provide this configuration information to the UE semi-statically or dynamically to allow the UE to utilize the AUL resources on the respective beams. Thus, the base station can coherently monitor the AUL transmissions on the AUL resources configured for the respective beam.

Additionally or alternatively, the base station may configure the AUL resources in a user-specific manner. For example, the base station may configure a first set of AUL resources for a first UE, a second set of AUL resources for a second UE, and so on. In this case, the UE may determine which transmit beam to use for AUL transmission. The UE may repeatedly transmit the data portion of the AUL resources until the base station receives the transmission. Additionally or alternatively, the UE may transmit a sensing portion of the AUL resources such that the base station can tune its receive beam in a corresponding direction in response to a sensing signal included in the sensing portion. In some cases, the base station may transmit a downlink trigger signal indicating which transmit beam the UE may use for AUL transmission.

Aspects of the present disclosure are initially described in the context of a wireless communication system. Further examples illustrating configured AUL resources used for AUL transmissions are provided. Aspects of the present disclosure are further illustrated and described by and with reference to device diagrams, system diagrams, and flow charts related to AULs employing analog beams.

Fig. 1 illustrates an example of a wireless communication system 100 in accordance with various aspects of the disclosure. The wireless communication system 100 includes a base station 105, a UE 115, and a core network 130. In some examples, the wireless communication system 100 may be a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, an LTE-advanced (LTE-a) network, an LTE-a Pro network, or a New Radio (NR) network. In some cases, the wireless communication system 100 may support enhanced broadband communications, ultra-reliable (e.g., mission critical) communications, low latency communications, or communications with low cost and low complexity devices. The wireless communication system 100 may support AUL resource configuration for AUL transmissions with reduced overhead.

Base station 105 may communicate wirelessly with UE 115 via one or more base station antennas. The base stations 105 described herein may include or may be referred to by those skilled in the art as base transceiver stations, radio base stations, access points, radio transceivers, node bs, evolved node bs (enbs), next generation node bs or giganode bs (any of which may be referred to as a gNB), home node bs, home evolved node bs, or some other suitable terminology. The wireless communication system 100 may include different types of base stations 105 (e.g., macro base stations or small cell base stations). The UEs 115 described herein may be capable of communicating with various types of base stations 105 and network equipment (including macro enbs, small cell enbs, gnbs, relay base stations, etc.).

Each base station 105 may be associated with a particular geographic coverage area 110 in which communications with various UEs 115 are supported in the particular geographic coverage area 110. Each base station 105 may provide communication coverage for a respective geographic coverage area 110 via a communication link 125, and the communication link 125 between the base station 105 and the UE 115 may utilize one or more carriers. The communication link 125 shown in the wireless communication system 100 may include an uplink transmission from the UE 115 to the base station 105, or a downlink transmission from the base station 105 to the UE 115. The downlink transmission may also be referred to as a forward link transmission, while the uplink transmission may also be referred to as a reverse link transmission.

The geographic coverage area 110 of a base station 105 may be divided into sectors that form only a portion of the geographic coverage area 110, and each sector may be associated with a cell. For example, each base station 105 may provide communication coverage for a macro cell, a small cell, a hot spot, or other type of cell, or various combinations thereof. In some examples, the base station 105 may be mobile and thus provide communication coverage to the mobile geographic coverage area 110. In some examples, different geographic coverage areas 110 associated with different technologies may overlap, and the overlapping geographic coverage areas 110 associated with different technologies may be supported by the same base station 105 or different base stations 105. The wireless communication system 100 may include, for example, heterogeneous LTE/LTE-a Pro or NR networks, where different types of base stations 105 provide coverage for various geographic coverage areas 110.

The term "cell" refers to a logical communication entity for communicating with the base station 105 (e.g., on a carrier) and may be associated with an identifier to distinguish between neighboring cells operating via the same or different carrier (e.g., physical Cell Identifier (PCID), virtual Cell Identifier (VCID)). In some examples, a carrier may support multiple cells and different cells may be configured according to different protocol types (e.g., machine Type Communication (MTC), narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), or others) that may provide access for different types of devices. In some cases, the term "cell" may refer to a portion (e.g., sector) of the geographic coverage area 110 over which the logical entity operates.

The UEs 115 may be dispersed throughout the wireless communication system 100, and each UE 115 may be stationary or mobile. UE 115 may also be referred to as a mobile device, a wireless device, a remote device, a handheld device, or a subscriber device, or some other suitable terminology, where "device" may also be referred to as a unit, station, terminal, or client. The UE 115 may also be a personal electronic device such as a cellular telephone, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a tablet computer, a laptop computer, or a personal computer. In some examples, the UE 115 may also refer to a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, an internet of things (IoT) device, a internet of everything (IoE) device, or an MTC device, etc., which may be implemented in various items such as appliances, vehicles, meters, etc.

Some UEs 115, such as MTC or IoT devices, may be low cost or low complexity devices and may provide automated communication between machines (e.g., via machine-to-machine (M2M) communication). M2M communication or MTC may refer to a data communication technology that allows devices to communicate with each other or with the base station 105 without human intervention. In some examples, M2M communications or MTC may include communications from devices integrated with sensors or meters to measure or capture information and relay the information to a central server or application that may utilize or present the information to a person interacting with the program or application. Some UEs 115 may be designed to collect information or to implement automated behavior of the machine. Examples of applications for MTC devices include: smart metering, inventory monitoring, water level monitoring, equipment monitoring, health care monitoring, field survival monitoring, weather and geographic event monitoring, queue management and tracking, remote security sensing, physical access control, and transaction-based business charging.

Some UEs 115 may be configured to employ a reduced power consumption mode of operation, such as half-duplex communication (e.g., a mode that supports unidirectional communication via transmission or reception but not simultaneous transmission and reception). In some examples, half-duplex communications may be performed at a reduced peak rate. Other power saving techniques for UE 115 include entering a power saving "deep sleep" mode when not engaged in active communication, or operating over a limited bandwidth (e.g., according to narrowband communication). In some cases, the UE 115 may be designed to support critical functions (e.g., mission critical functions), and the wireless communication system 100 may be configured to provide ultra-reliable communications for these functions.

In some cases, the UE 115 may also be able to communicate directly with other UEs 115 (e.g., using peer-to-peer (P2P) or device-to-device (D2D) protocols). One or more UEs in a group of UEs 115 utilizing D2D communication may be within the geographic coverage area 110 of the base station 105. Other UEs 115 in such a group may be outside of the geographic coverage area 110 of the base station 105 or otherwise unable to receive transmissions from the base station 105. In some cases, groups of UEs 115 communicating via D2D communication may utilize a one-to-many (1:M) system, where each UE 115 transmits to each other UE 115 in the group. In some cases, the base station 105 facilitates scheduling of resources for D2D communications. In other cases, D2D communication is performed between UEs 115 without involving base station 105.

Each base station 105 may communicate with the core network 130 and with each other. For example, the base station 105 may interface with the core network 130 through a backhaul link 132 (e.g., via S1 or some other interface). The base stations 105 may communicate with each other directly (e.g., directly between the base stations 105) or indirectly (e.g., via the core network 130) over a backhaul link 134 (e.g., via an X2 or other interface).

The core network 130 may provide user authentication, access authorization, tracking, internet Protocol (IP) connectivity, and other access, routing, or mobility functions. The core network 130 may be an Evolved Packet Core (EPC), which may include at least one Mobility Management Entity (MME), at least one serving gateway (S-GW), and at least one Packet Data Network (PDN) gateway (P-GW). The MME may manage non-access stratum (e.g., control plane) functions such as mobility, authentication, and bearer management for UEs 115 served by base stations 105 associated with the EPC. The user IP packets may be communicated through the S-GW, which itself may be connected to the P-GW. The P-GW may provide IP address assignment as well as other functions. The P-GW may be connected to a network operator IP service. Operator IP services may include access to the internet, intranet(s), IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), or Packet Switched (PS) streaming services.

At least some network devices, such as base station 105, may include subcomponents, such as an access network entity, which may be an example of an Access Node Controller (ANC). Each access network entity may communicate with each UE 115 through several other access network transmission entities, which may be referred to as radio heads, intelligent radio heads, or transmission/reception points (TRPs). In some configurations, the various functions of each access network entity or base station 105 may be distributed across various network devices (e.g., radio heads and access network controllers) or incorporated into a single network device (e.g., base station 105).

The wireless communication system 100 may operate using one or more frequency bands, typically in the range of 300MHz to 300 GHz. Generally, the 300MHz to 3GHz region is referred to as an Ultra High Frequency (UHF) region or decimeter band because the wavelength ranges from about 1 decimeter to 1 meter long. UHF waves may be blocked or redirected by building and environmental features. However, these waves may penetrate various structures for macro cells sufficiently to serve UEs 115 located indoors. Transmission of UHF waves may be associated with smaller antennas and shorter ranges (e.g., less than 100 km) than transmission of smaller and longer waves using High Frequency (HF) or Very High Frequency (VHF) portions of the spectrum below 300 MHz.

The wireless communication system 100 may also operate in the very high frequency (SHF) region using a frequency band from 3GHz to 30GHz, also referred to as a centimeter frequency band. The SHF region includes frequency bands that may be opportunistically used by devices that can tolerate interference from other users (such as the 5GHz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) band).

The wireless communication system 100 may also operate in an Extremely High Frequency (EHF) region of the spectrum (e.g., from 25GHz to 300 GHz), which region is also referred to as a millimeter-frequency band. In some examples, the wireless communication system 100 may support mmW communication between the UE 115 and the base station 105, and EHF antennas of the respective devices may be even smaller and more closely spaced than UHF antennas. In some cases, this may facilitate the use of antenna arrays within UE 115. However, the propagation of EHF transmissions may experience even greater atmospheric attenuation and shorter range than SHF or UHF transmissions. The techniques disclosed herein may be employed across transmissions using one or more different frequency regions, and the frequency band usage specified across these frequency regions may vary from country to country or regulatory agency to regulatory agency.

The UE 115 attempting to access the wireless network may perform an initial cell search by detecting a Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS) from the base station 105. The PSS may enable synchronization of slot timing and may indicate a physical layer identity value. UE 115 may then receive a Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS). The SSS may enable radio frame synchronization and may provide a cell identity value that may be combined with a physical layer identity value to identify the cell. SSS may also enable detection of duplex mode and cyclic prefix length. Some systems, such as Time Division Duplex (TDD) systems, may transmit SSS but not PSS. Both PSS and SSS may be located in the center 62 and 72 subcarriers of the carrier, respectively. After receiving the PSS and SSS, the UE 115 may receive a Master Information Block (MIB), which may be transmitted in a Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH). The MIB may contain system bandwidth information, SFN, and Physical HARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH) configuration. After decoding the MIB, the UE 115 may receive one or more SIBs. For example, SIB1 may contain cell access parameters and scheduling information for other SIBs. Decoding SIB1 may enable UE 115 to receive SIB2.SIB2 may contain RRC configuration information related to a Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure, paging, PUCCH, physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), power control, sounding Reference Signals (SRS), and cell barring. In some cases, the base station 105 may transmit Synchronization Signals (SSs) (e.g., PSS, SSs, etc.) using multiple beams in a beam sweep within the cell coverage region. For example, PSS, SSs, and/or broadcast information (e.g., PBCH) may be transmitted within different SS blocks on respective directional beams, where one or more SS blocks may be included within an SS burst. In some cases, these SSs or RSs may be transmitted at different times and/or using different beams.

The base station 105 may insert periodic pilot symbols, such as cell-specific reference signals (CRSs), to assist the UEs 115 in channel estimation and coherent demodulation. The CRS may include one of 504 different cell identities. They may be modulated using Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) and power boosted (e.g., transmitted 6dB higher than the sounding data elements) to make them more resistant to noise and interference. The CRS may be embedded in 4 to 16 resource elements per resource block based on the number of antenna ports or layers (up to 4) of the recipient UE 115. In addition to CRSs that may be utilized by all UEs 115 in the geographic coverage area 110 of the base station 105, demodulation reference signals (DMRS) may be directed to a particular UE 115 and may be transmitted only on resource blocks assigned to those UEs 115. The DMRS may include signals on 6 resource elements in each resource block in which signals are transmitted. DMRSs for different antenna ports may each utilize the same 6 resource elements and may be distinguished using different orthogonal cover codes (e.g., each signal is masked with a different combination of 1 or-1 in different resource elements). In some cases, two DMRS sets may be transmitted in contiguous resource elements. In some cases, an additional reference signal, referred to as a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), may be included to assist in generating Channel State Information (CSI). On the uplink, the UE 115 may transmit a combination of periodic SRS and uplink DMRS for link adaptation and demodulation, respectively.

In some cases, the wireless communication system 100 may utilize both licensed and unlicensed radio frequency spectrum bands. For example, the wireless communication system 100 may employ License Assisted Access (LAA), LTE unlicensed (LTE-U) radio access technology, or NR technology in an unlicensed frequency band, such as the 5GHz ISM band. When operating in the unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band, wireless devices, such as base station 105 and UE 115, may employ a Listen Before Talk (LBT) procedure to ensure that the frequency channel is clear before transmitting data. In some cases, operation in the unlicensed band may be based on a CA configuration (e.g., LAA) in conjunction with CCs operating in the licensed band. Operations in the unlicensed spectrum may include downlink transmissions, uplink transmissions, peer-to-peer transmissions, or a combination of these. Duplex in the unlicensed spectrum may be based on Frequency Division Duplex (FDD), TDD, or a combination of both. In some cases, the UE 115 may perform an LBT procedure before performing an AUL transmission.

In some examples, the base station 105 or UE 115 may be equipped with multiple antennas that may be used to employ techniques such as transmit diversity, receive diversity, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication, or beamforming. For example, the wireless communication system 100 may use a transmission scheme between a transmitting device (e.g., base station 105) and a receiving device (e.g., UE 115), where the transmitting device is equipped with multiple antennas and the receiving device is equipped with one or more antennas. MIMO communications may employ multipath signal propagation to increase spectral efficiency by transmitting or receiving multiple signals via different spatial layers, which may be referred to as spatial multiplexing. For example, the transmitting device may transmit multiple signals via different antennas or different combinations of antennas. Likewise, the receiving device may receive multiple signals via different antennas or different combinations of antennas. Each of the plurality of signals may be referred to as a separate spatial stream and may carry bits associated with the same data stream (e.g., the same codeword) or a different data stream. Different spatial layers may be associated with different antenna ports for channel measurement and reporting. MIMO techniques include single-user MIMO (SU-MIMO) in which multiple spatial layers are transmitted to the same receiver device; and multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO), wherein the plurality of spatial layers are transmitted to the plurality of devices.

Beamforming (which may also be referred to as spatial filtering, directional transmission, or directional reception) is a signal processing technique that may be used at a transmitting device or a receiving device (e.g., base station 105 or UE 115) to shape or steer antenna beams (e.g., transmit beams or receive beams) along a spatial path between the transmitting device and the receiving device. Beamforming may be implemented by combining signals communicated via antenna elements of an antenna array such that signals propagating in a particular orientation relative to the antenna array experience constructive interference while other signals experience destructive interference. The adjustment of the signals communicated via the antenna elements may include the transmitting device or the receiving device applying a particular amplitude and phase offset to the signals carried via each antenna element associated with the device. The adjustment associated with each antenna element may be defined by a set of beamforming weights associated with a particular orientation (e.g., with respect to an antenna array of a transmitting device or a receiving device, or with respect to some other orientation).

In one example, the base station 105 may use multiple antennas or antenna arrays for beamforming operations for directional communication with the UE 115. For example, some signals (e.g., synchronization signals, reference signals, beam selection signals, or other control signals) may be transmitted multiple times by the base station 105 in different directions, which may include signals transmitted according to different sets of beamforming weights associated with different transmission directions. Transmissions in different beam directions may be used (e.g., by base station 105 or a recipient device, such as UE 115) to identify the beam direction used by base station 105 for subsequent transmission and/or reception. Some signals, such as data signals associated with a particular recipient device, may be transmitted by the base station 105 in a single beam direction (e.g., a direction associated with the recipient device, such as the UE 115). In some examples, a beam direction associated with transmissions in a single beam direction may be determined based at least in part on signals transmitted in different beam directions. For example, the UE 115 may receive one or more signals transmitted by the base station 105 in different directions, and the UE 115 may report an indication to the base station 105 of the signal it received with the highest signal quality or other acceptable signal quality. Although these techniques are described with reference to signals transmitted by base station 105 in one or more directions, UE 115 may use similar techniques for transmitting signals multiple times in different directions (e.g., for identifying a beam direction for subsequent transmission or reception by UE 115) or for transmitting signals in a single direction (e.g., for transmitting data to a recipient device).

A recipient device (e.g., UE 115, which may be an example of a mmW recipient device) may attempt multiple receive beams upon receiving various signals (such as synchronization signals, reference signals, beam selection signals, or other control signals) from base station 105. For example, the recipient device may attempt multiple directions of reception by: the received signals are received via different antenna sub-arrays, processed according to the different antenna sub-arrays, received according to different sets of receive beamforming weights applied to signals received at multiple antenna elements of the antenna array, or processed according to different sets of receive beamforming weights applied to signals received at multiple antenna elements of the antenna array, any of which may be referred to as "listening" according to different receive beams or receive directions. In some examples, the recipient device may use a single receive beam to receive in a single beam direction (e.g., when receiving a data signal). A single receive beam may be aligned over a beam direction determined based at least in part on listening according to different receive beam directions (e.g., a beam direction determined to have the highest signal strength, highest signal-to-noise ratio, or other acceptable signal quality based at least in part on listening according to multiple beam directions).

In some cases, the antennas of base station 105 or UE 115 may be located within one or more antenna arrays that may support MIMO operation or transmit or receive beamforming. For example, one or more base station antennas or antenna arrays may be co-located at an antenna assembly (such as an antenna tower). In some cases, antennas or antenna arrays associated with base station 105 may be located in different geographic locations. The base station 105 may have an antenna array with several rows and columns of antenna ports that the base station 105 may use to support beamforming for communication with the UE 115. Also, UE 115 may have one or more antenna arrays that may support various MIMO or beamforming operations.

In some cases, the wireless communication system 100 may be a packet-based network that operates according to a layered protocol stack. In the user plane, the communication of the bearer or Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer may be IP-based. In some cases, a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer may perform packet segmentation and reassembly to communicate over logical channels. The Medium Access Control (MAC) layer may perform priority handling and multiplexing logical channels into transport channels. The MAC layer may also use hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) to provide retransmissions at the MAC layer to improve link efficiency. In the control plane, a Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol layer may provide establishment, configuration, and maintenance of an RRC connection between the UE 115 and the base station 105 or the core network 130 supporting radio bearers of user plane data. At the Physical (PHY) layer, transport channels may be mapped to physical channels.

In some cases, the UE 115 and the base station 105 may support retransmission of data to increase the likelihood that the data is successfully received. HARQ feedback is a technique that increases the likelihood that data is properly received over the communication link 125. HARQ may include a combination of error detection (e.g., using Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)), forward Error Correction (FEC), and retransmission (e.g., automatic repeat request (ARQ)). HARQ may improve throughput at the MAC layer in poor radio conditions (e.g., signal-to-noise conditions). In some cases, a wireless device may support simultaneous slot HARQ feedback, where the device may provide HARQ feedback in a particular slot for data received in a previous symbol in the slot. In other cases, the device may provide HARQ feedback in a subsequent time slot or according to some other time interval.

The time interval in LTE or NR may be in basic time units (which may refer to a sampling period T, for example _s =1/30,720,000 seconds). The time intervals of the communication resources may be according to a time interval each having a duration of 10 milliseconds (ms)Radio frames are organized, where the frame period can be expressed as T _f ＝307,200T _s . The radio frames may be identified by a System Frame Number (SFN) ranging from 0 to 1023. Each frame may include 10 subframes numbered from 0 to 9, and each subframe may have a duration of 1 ms. The subframe may be further divided into 2 slots each having a duration of 0.5ms, and each slot may contain 6 or 7 modulation symbol periods (e.g., depending on the length of the cyclic prefix added before each symbol period). Excluding the cyclic prefix, each symbol period may contain 2048 sample periods. In some cases, a subframe may be a minimum scheduling unit of the wireless communication system 100 and may be referred to as a Transmission Time Interval (TTI). In other cases, the minimum scheduling unit of the wireless communication system 100 may be shorter than a subframe or may be dynamically selected (e.g., in bursts of shortened TTI (STTI) or in selected component carriers using STTI).

In some wireless communication systems, a time slot may be further divided into a plurality of mini-slots containing one or more symbols. In some examples, the symbol of the mini-slot or the mini-slot may be the smallest scheduling unit. For example, each symbol may vary in duration depending on subcarrier spacing or operating frequency band. Further, some wireless communication systems may implement slot aggregation, where multiple slots or mini-slots are aggregated together and used for communication between the UE 115 and the base station 105.

The term "carrier" refers to a set of radio frequency spectrum resources having a defined physical layer structure for supporting communications over the communication link 125. For example, the carrier of the communication link 125 may include a portion of a radio frequency spectrum band that operates according to a physical layer channel for a given radio access technology. Each physical layer channel may carry user data, control information, or other signaling. The carrier may be associated with a predefined frequency channel, e.g., an E-UTRA absolute radio frequency channel number (EARFCN), and may be positioned according to a channel grid for discovery by the UE 115. The carrier may be downlink or uplink (e.g., in FDD mode), or configured to carry downlink and uplink communications (e.g., in TDD mode). In some examples, the signal waveform transmitted on the carrier may include multiple subcarriers (e.g., using multi-carrier modulation (MCM) techniques, such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) or DFT-s-OFDM).

The organization of the carriers may be different for different radio access technologies (e.g., LTE-A, LTE-a Pro, NR, etc.). For example, communications on carriers may be organized according to TTIs or time slots, each of which may include user data and control information or signaling supporting decoding of the user data. The carrier may also include dedicated acquisition signaling (e.g., synchronization signals or system information) and control signaling to coordinate the operation of the carrier. In some examples (e.g., in a carrier aggregation configuration), a carrier may also have acquisition signaling or control signaling that coordinates the operation of other carriers.

The physical channels may be multiplexed on the carrier according to various techniques. The physical control channels and physical data channels may be multiplexed on the downlink carrier using, for example, time Division Multiplexing (TDM) techniques, frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) techniques, or hybrid TDM-FDM techniques. In some examples, control information transmitted in the physical control channel may be distributed among different control regions in a cascaded manner (e.g., between a common control region or common search space and one or more UE-specific control regions or UE-specific search spaces).

Downlink Control Information (DCI) including HARQ information is transmitted in a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) carrying the DCI in at least one control channel element CCE, which may include nine logically contiguous Resource Element Groups (REGs), where each REG contains 4 resource elements. The DCI includes information on downlink scheduling assignment, uplink resource grant, transmission scheme, uplink power control, HARQ information, modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), and other information. The size and format of the DCI message may be different depending on the type and amount of information carried by the DCI. For example, if spatial multiplexing is supported, the size of the DCI message is large compared to contiguous frequency allocations. Similarly, for systems employing MIMO, the DCI includes additional signaling information. The DCI size and format depends on the amount of information and factors such as bandwidth, number of antenna ports, and duplex mode.

A carrier may be associated with a particular bandwidth of the radio frequency spectrum and, in some examples, may be referred to as a carrier or "system bandwidth" of the wireless communication system 100. For example, the carrier bandwidth may be one of several predetermined bandwidths (e.g., 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 40, or 80 MHz) of the carrier of the particular radio access technology. In some examples, each served UE 115 may be configured to operate over part or all of the carrier bandwidth. In other examples, some UEs 115 may be configured for operation using a narrowband protocol type (e.g., an "in-band" deployment of narrowband protocol types) associated with a predefined portion or range within a carrier (e.g., a set of subcarriers or Resource Blocks (RBs)).

In a system employing MCM techniques, the resource elements may include one symbol period (e.g., duration of one modulation symbol) and one subcarrier, where the symbol period and subcarrier spacing are inversely related. The number of bits carried by each resource element may depend on the modulation scheme (e.g., the order of the modulation scheme). Thus, the more resource elements that the UE 115 receives and the higher the order of the modulation scheme, the higher the data rate of the UE 115 may be. In a MIMO system, the wireless communication resources may refer to a combination of radio frequency spectrum resources, time resources, and spatial resources (e.g., spatial layers), and the use of multiple spatial layers may further improve the data rate of communications with the UE 115.

Devices of the wireless communication system 100 (e.g., the base station 105 or the UE 115) may have a hardware configuration that supports communication over a particular carrier bandwidth or may be configurable to support communication over one of a set of carrier bandwidths. In some examples, wireless communication system 100 may include base station 105 and/or UE that may support simultaneous communication via carriers associated with more than one different carrier bandwidth.

The wireless communication system 100 may support communication with UEs 115 over multiple cells or carriers, a feature that may be referred to as Carrier Aggregation (CA) or multi-carrier operation. UE 115 may be configured with multiple downlink CCs and one or more uplink CCs according to a carrier aggregation configuration. Carrier aggregation may be used with both FDD and TDD component carriers.

In some cases, the wireless communication system 100 may utilize an enhanced component carrier (eCC). An eCC may be characterized by one or more characteristics including a wider carrier or frequency channel bandwidth, a shorter symbol duration, a shorter TTI duration, or a modified control channel configuration. In some cases, an eCC may be associated with a carrier aggregation configuration or a dual connectivity configuration (e.g., when multiple serving cells have sub-optimal or non-ideal backhaul links). An eCC may also be configured for use in unlicensed spectrum or shared spectrum (e.g., where more than one operator is allowed to use the spectrum). An eCC characterized by a wide carrier bandwidth may include one or more segments that may be utilized by UEs 115 that are not capable of monitoring the entire carrier bandwidth or are otherwise configured to use a limited carrier bandwidth (e.g., to save power).

In some cases, an eCC may utilize a symbol duration that is different from other CCs, which may include using a reduced symbol duration as compared to symbol durations of other CCs. The shorter symbol duration may be associated with increased spacing between adjacent subcarriers. Devices utilizing eccs, such as UE 115 or base station 105, may transmit wideband signals (e.g., according to frequency channels or carrier bandwidths of 20, 40, 60, 80MHz, etc.) with reduced symbol durations (e.g., 16.67 (μs) (microseconds)). The TTI in an eCC may include one or more symbol periods. In some cases, the TTI duration (i.e., the number of symbol periods in the TTI) may be variable.

A wireless communication system, such as an NR system, may utilize any combination of licensed, shared, and unlicensed bands, etc. The flexibility of eCC symbol duration and subcarrier spacing may allow eCC to be used across multiple spectrums. In some examples, NR sharing spectrum may increase spectrum utilization and spectrum efficiency, particularly through dynamic vertical (e.g., across frequency) and horizontal (e.g., across time) sharing of resources.

The wireless communication system 100 may support resource configuration for AUL transmissions by the UE 115. For example, the base station 105 may configure a set of AUL resources specific to the base station receive beam, or the AUL resources may be configured for a particular UE 115 or group of users. Additionally, the AUL resources may be configured to include a sensing portion (e.g., including an AUL indicator), a data portion, or both. The use of the configured AUL resources may enable the AUL transmission by the UE 115 with minimal overhead, and the base station 105 may efficiently determine a receive beam for receiving uplink data from the UE 115 according to the AUL configuration.

As an example, the UE 115 may receive an AUL configuration that includes an indication of a set of AUL resources that are specific to an AUL receive beam at the base station 105. The UE 115 may then determine that the set of AUL resources is available and perform an AUL transmission of uplink data to the base station 105 using the set of beam-specific AUL resources. Since the set of AUL resources may be specific to the AUL receive beam, the base station 105 may receive AUL transmissions according to the AUL configuration (e.g., on the base station receive beam corresponding to the AUL resources). Additionally or alternatively, upon receiving the UE-specific AUL configuration, the UE 115 may perform an AUL transmission that includes a first portion for the sensing signal and a second portion for uplink data. The base station 105 may use the sense signal to determine the appropriate receive beam to receive the uplink data in the AUL transmission. In some examples, the UE 115 may receive a trigger signal from the base station 105 indicating whether the set of AUL resources is available for AUL transmission.

Fig. 2 illustrates an example of a wireless communication system 200 supporting AUL employing analog beams in accordance with various aspects of the disclosure. In some examples, wireless communication system 200 may implement aspects of wireless communication system 100. For example, wireless communication system 200 includes base station 105, a plurality of UEs 115 including UE 115-a and UE 115-b, which may be examples of corresponding devices described with reference to fig. 1. The wireless communication system 200 may support efficient AUL transmissions for UEs 115 using an AUL resource set configuration, where the AUL resource set may include a sensing portion, a data portion, or both.

The wireless communication system 200 may operate in a frequency range associated with beamformed transmissions between the base station 105-a and the UEs 115-a and/or 115-b. For example, the wireless communication system 200 may operate using a mmW frequency range. As a result, signal processing techniques (such as beamforming) can be used to coherently combine energy and overcome path loss. For example, the base station 105-a and the UE 115 may communicate via beams to link BPLs, each including, for example, a transmit beam 205 of the UE 115 and a receive beam 210 of the base station 105-a. It should be appreciated that the respective devices are capable of forming directional beams for transmission and reception, wherein the base station 105-a may also form one or more transmit beams for transmission on the downlink, while the UE 115 may form corresponding receive beams to receive signals from the base station 105-a. In some cases, the base station 105-a may have the capacity to utilize a single receive beam 210 only once (e.g., during a TTI), and the base station 105-a may receive directional transmissions from the UEs 115-a and 115-b while monitoring the path of the transmit beam 205 (e.g., in a particular direction).

One or both of the UEs 115-a and 115-b may be capable of an AUL transmission to the base station 105-a. Thus, a UE 115 in the wireless communication system 200 may perform an AUL transmission 215 to the base station 105-a via the transmit beam 205, which AUL transmission 215 may be received at the base station 105-a using the corresponding receive beam 210. A corresponding beam may be defined as a receive beam 210 that is used to receive a signal from a direction, where there may be a corresponding transmit beam 205 that is used to transmit in that direction. Additionally or alternatively, the corresponding beams may refer to a transmit beam 205 and a receive beam 210 that use the same beamforming weights. There may also be correspondence between transmit and receive beams at the same device. For example, the base station 105-a may receive a transmission on a particular receive beam 210 (i.e., in a first direction), and the base station 105-a may send a downlink transmission on a corresponding transmit beam (i.e., in the first direction) using the same beam path as the receive beam 210. The beamforming weights in such a scenario may be the same for both the receive beam 210 and the transmit beam at the base station 105-a. The same correspondence may occur with respect to transmit beams 205 and receive beams formed at UEs 115-a and 115-b. In any case, the AUL transmission 215 may be sent by the UE 115-a on the AUL resource set. The base station 105-a may accordingly transmit downlink communications to the UE 115 via the downlink beam, which may include an AUL configuration, wherein the AUL configuration indicates a set of AUL resources for use by the UE 115.

In some examples, the set of AU resources may be configured to include a sensing portion 225 (e.g., including an AUL indicator), a data portion 230, or any combination of these. Resources (e.g., AUL resources) may be defined as time/frequency resources including, for example, one or more of Resource Blocks (RBs), beams, subframes, and the like. For example, an RB may be a minimum time/frequency resource unit allocated to a user, which may include several subcarriers (e.g., 12 subcarriers) having a slot duration. As described further below, the base station 105-a may configure the respective time domain AUL resources to the UEs 115-a and 115-b, wherein the base station 105-a may use different receive beams 210 to receive the AUL transmissions 215 from the respective UEs 115. In some examples, the base station 105-a may configure different AUL resources on different beams for different UEs 115, where the AUL resources may overlap in time. For example, the base station 105-a may configure a first set of AUL resources specific to a first base station receive beam 210, a second set of AUL resources specific to a second base station receive beam 210, and so on.

In some cases, however, the base station 105-a may have the capacity to receive only one beam at a time, and thus may not be able to receive the AUL transmissions from each UE 115 at the same time, the AUL configuration may enable the base station 105-a to efficiently detect and receive the incoming AUL transmissions 215 on the respective set of AUL resources. In some cases, the base station 105-a may determine which UE 115 may transmit on the AUL resources and which receive beam 210 the base station 105-a may use for receiving uplink data (e.g., the base station 105-a may track the best receive beam 210 for the UE 115-a). In some examples, the base station 105-a may provide the set of AUL resources to the plurality of UEs 115 via an AUL configuration. The set of AUL resources may be configured such that they overlap in time, or the AUL resources may be configured such that they do not overlap in time.

The base station 105-a may use a combination of semi-static and dynamic indications in signaling the configuration of the AUL resources. For example, the base station 105-a may configure the AUI resources in a beam-specific manner semi-statically (e.g., through RRC messaging or DCI) or dynamically (e.g., through DCI or downlink triggering). In some cases, the AUL configuration may be UE-specific, cell-specific, or beam-specific. When the UE 115 is able to track the base station receive beam 210, a beam-specific AUL configuration may be desirable, which may allow the UE 115-a to match the transmit beam 205 to the direction of the base station receive beam 210. While the base station 105-a is using the receive beam 210, if the UE 115-a determines that the base station 105-a may be able to detect the AUL transmission 215, the UE 115-a may send only the AUL transmission 215 to the base station 105-a on the AUL resources. Additionally, beam-specific AUL configurations may be desirable when the AUL traffic is random (e.g., as with web browsing).

In some examples, additional AUL resources for a particular base station receive beam 210 or for a particular user/user group may be dynamically made available through DCI, downlink triggers, or both. In some cases, if the AUL transmission 215 on the set of AUL resources includes a sensing portion 225 and a data portion 230, the sensing portion 225 may be skipped (e.g., not used) for the dynamically allocated beam-specific AUL resources. In some examples, the PUSCH/DMRS pattern may be different with respect to dynamically configured AUL resources relative to semi-statically configured AUL resources. Additionally, the DCI and/or downlink trigger may indicate whether the AUL resources include the sensing portion 225. That is, the AUL resource set may not include the sensing portion 225 and the AUL transmission 215 may include only the data portion 230. Additionally, there may be different options configured for different portions of the AUL resources. For example, one or more reference signals may be transmitted within the sensing portion 225, where the reference signals may be multiplexed with uplink data in the sensing portion 225. In other cases, the sensing portion 225 may include sensing signals used by the base station 105-a to determine the receive beam 210 for receiving the data portion 230.

The sense signal may assist the base station 105-a in identifying the receive beam for the UE 115-a. The UE 115-a may transmit the sensing signal when it has data, or may transmit the sensing signal even if the UE 115-a does not have uplink data to transmit. In some cases, the UE 115-a may initiate a beam change and when it is determined (e.g., based on downlink measurements) that the base station 105-a may need to update its beam, the UE 115-a may use the sensing portion 225 for transmission. In other examples, the base station 105-a may initiate a beam change. For example, the base station may monitor SRS along a certain beam direction (or multiple beam directions). When the base station 105-a determines that the beam strength is weak (e.g., based on RSRP, SINR, etc.), the base station 105-a may instruct the corresponding UE 115 (e.g., via DCI) to transmit more sensing signals so that the base station 105-a can update the base station receive beam 210.

The sensing portion 225 may also include additional control information. For example, the sensing portion 225 may include one or any combination of the following (e.g., as part of an AUL indicator): priority of AUL transmission, waveform for data transmission (e.g., PUSCH), information about identity of the transmitting UE 115, UE transmit beam 205 identity (e.g., for transmit beam adaptation), MCS, redundancy Version (RV), resource allocation information (e.g., time and frequency domain information), reference signals (e.g., SRS or DMRS), or an indication of a preferred receive beam 210 to be used at the base station 105-a to receive the AUL transmission (e.g., in the case where omni-directional sensing is used by the base station 105-a (i.e., multiple receive beams 210 forming a pseudo-omni beam). In some examples, information associated with the sensing portion 225 may be carried at least by scrambling codes, orthogonal cover codes, cyclic shifts, or frequency combs associated with the sensing portion 225. The sensing portion 225 may also serve as a DMRS for the data portion 230. For example, in the event that there is a collision between multiple AUL transmissions 215, the base station 105-a may use this additional information to select which receive beam 210 to use for receiving uplink data.

Upon receiving the AUL configuration, the UE 115-a may determine whether beam-specific AUL resources are available to the UE 115-a. In some examples, the base station 105-a may transmit an indication of whether the set of AUL resources is available for AUL transmission. The indication may be explicit (e.g., via RRC messaging or DCI), or the indication may be implicit (e.g., an AUL indicator, downlink trigger, or trigger signal). For example, a downlink trigger or trigger signal may be sent to the UE 115-a, and the UE 115-a may use the trigger signal to determine whether the set of AUL resources is available for the AUL transmission 215. In this case, the AUL configuration may also include configuration information for the trigger signal, which may be used by the UE 115-a to both determine the time/frequency resources of the trigger signal and process the trigger signal.

The base station 105-a may transmit trigger signaling using a base station transmit beam corresponding to the base station receive beam 210 of the AUL resources. Because of reciprocity, if UE 115-a detects a downlink trigger sent on a transmit beam corresponding to base station receive beam 210 using a UE receive beam, an AUL transmission using transmit beam 205 following the same path as base station receive beam 210 may be detected by base station 105 using base station receive beam 210, and thus UE 115-a may send its AUL traffic on transmit beam 205. The base station transmit beam and the base station receive beam 210 may refer to beams used by the base station 105-a for transmitting and receiving in the same direction. For example, the base station beam and the base station receive beam 210 may use the same beamforming weights. Similarly, the transmit beam 205 and the UE receive beam may refer to a UE transmit beam 205 and a UE receive beam that may be in the same direction at the UE 115. In some examples, the UE 115-a may be preconfigured with a trigger signal where to monitor (e.g., the resources on which to monitor). Additionally or alternatively, multiple AUL resources may share the same trigger. In some examples, the UE 115-a may determine that the AUL resources are available for the AUL transmission based at least in part on one or more of: determining that the signal strength of the trigger signal is above a threshold, detecting the presence or absence of the trigger signal, or successfully decoding the trigger signal.

In some examples, the downlink trigger may be a waveform based design. The trigger signal may be FDM transmitted with a Synchronization Signal Burst (SSB), or the trigger signal may be SSB itself. In such a case, the AUL configuration information also configures which SSB to monitor for a trigger signal. In some examples, the downlink trigger may include RRC messaging, DCI downlink messaging, PDCCH, reference signal, SSB, or a combination thereof.

In the case where the trigger includes a PDCCH transmission, the PDCCH may indicate a subset of AUL resources within the set of available AUL resources. The PDCCH may also indicate a second trigger associated with the AUL resources, wherein the second trigger may be used to determine whether the AUL resources are available. The second trigger signal may be a reference signal or signaling within an SSB using the same beam. In some cases, the trigger may indicate information related to the AUL transmission 215. For example, the downlink trigger may implicitly or explicitly indicate one or a combination of the following: an identifier of the detected sensing resource (e.g., sensing portion 225), information about the identity of the transmitting UE, beam identity information (e.g., base station receive beam ID, base station transmit beam ID, UE transmit beam ID for transmitting PUSCH, etc.), base station transmit identity, UE data portion transmit identity, AUL data resource allocation corresponding to one or more beams, and waveform type for the AUL resource data portion (e.g., for PUSCH).

If the beam-specific AUL resources are determined to be available to the UE 115-a, the UE 115-a may use the transmit beam 205 most suitable for uplink transmission (e.g., use the transmit beam 205 aligned with the configured base station receive beam 210, or use the transmit beam 205 experiencing the least interference or having the highest received signal strength) and thereby transmit on the corresponding AUL resources configured for the base station receive beam 210.

In some examples, the base station 105-a may transmit an indication of the set of AUL resources to the UE 115-a via the AUL configuration, and the UE 115-a may not be aware of the base station receive beam 210 associated with the AUL resources. In this case, the base station 105-a may monitor the transmit beam 210 from the UE 115-a to determine the best BPL on which to communicate with the UE 115-a, where the BPL includes a receive beam 210 and a transmit beam 205 that follow the same path. The optimal BPL may be a BPL characterized by a highest Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ) or a highest signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR) compared to other BPLs. The base station 105-a may configure different UEs 115 such that their AUL resources do not overlap in time, or the base station 105-a may configure different UEs 115 such that their AUL resources overlap in time. In the case of overlap, the base station 105-a may determine on which receive beam 210 to receive.

The base station 105-a and its corresponding UEs 115 (e.g., UE 115-a and UE 115-b) may have known procedures for searching and fine-tuning the receive beam 210 for AUL reception. In some cases, the base station 105-a and the UE 115-a may implement additional procedures for identifying and fine-tuning the receive beam 210 for AUL reception. For example, the UE 115-a may transmit uplink data (e.g., PUSCH) on its AUL resources on a different transmit beam 205. The base station 105-a may cycle through the different receive beams 210 until the transmit beam 205 is detected and the AUL transmission 215 may be subsequently received. To avoid losing data transmissions, the process may require repeating uplink data within the AUL transmission 215. In some examples, the base station 105-a may be aware that the base station on which communication with the UE 115-a was successful receives the beam 210. In this case, the base station 105-a may only monitor the receive beam 210 until it detects the AUL transmission 215.

In some examples, the UE 115-a may transmit an AUL indicator or a sense signal to the base station 105-a. The base station 105-a may determine to use the receive beam 210 based at least in part on the AUL indicator transmitted by the UE 115-a. In some examples, the AUL indicator is included in the sensing portion 225 of the AUL resource. The UE 115-a may determine when to transmit an AUL indicator, where the AUL indicator may be sent when the UE 115-a has data to transmit or when the UE 115-a does not have data to transmit. The UE 115-a may also determine to update the transmit beam 205 based on the downlink signal measurements, and the UE 115-a may transmit the AUL indicator based at least in part on the determination. In some examples, base station 105-a may configure UE 115-a to perform the functions described herein.

Thus, with various AUL resource allocation schemes, various procedures can be used to achieve efficient AUL transmissions using directional beams. For example, the single step procedure may include the UE 115-a identifying a set of AUL resources corresponding to the desired receive beam 210 or resources assigned to the UE 115-a, and the UE 115-a may then perform an AUL transmission on the set of AUL resources. In a two-step procedure, the base station 105-a may send a trigger to inform the UE 115-a that AUL resources are available. The UE 115-a may thereby use the set of AUL resources if the UE 115-a detects a trigger and/or if the trigger matches the receive beam 210. Additionally or alternatively, in another two-step process, the UE 115-a may transmit the sensing signal to the base station 105-a. In this case, the UE 115-a may identify one or more AUL sensing resources (e.g., sensing portion 225) that may correspond to the desired receive beam 210 at the base station 105-a (e.g., if the UE 115-a knows the receive beam 210 for that resource). The UE 115-a may then transmit a sense signal (or AUL indicator) on one or more AUL sensing resources and PUSCH transmissions. In this case, the sensing by the base station 105-a may be along a particular receive beam 210, or may be along multiple receive beams 210 or omni-directional. Thus, the sensing resources for different receive beams 210 may overlap. The base station 105-a may then adapt its receive beam 210 for the set of AUL resources (and PUSCH transmissions) based on the sensing operation.

In other examples, a three-step process may be used for AUL transmission using directional beams. For example, UE 115-a may transmit the sensing signal without transmitting uplink data. The base station 105-a may detect the sense signal and then transmit a trigger signal (or DCI) that may enable the UE 115-a to identify whether the UE 115-a may proceed with the AUL transmission of uplink data (e.g., on PUSCH). If AUL resources are determined to be available for such transmission, the UE 115-a may continue to transmit uplink data.

Fig. 3A and 3B illustrate examples of AUL resource configurations 301 and 302 in a system supporting AUL employing analog beams in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. Aspects of the AUL resource configurations 301 and 302 may be implemented by the UE 115 and the base station 105, which UE 115 and base station 105 may be examples of corresponding devices with respect to the wireless communication systems 100 and 200. The AUL resource configurations 301 and 302 may illustrate examples of AUL resources configured for a particular receive beam at the base station 105.

For example, the AUL resource configuration 301 may include multiple AUL resource sets 305, where the respective AUL resource sets 305 may be configured such that they do not overlap in time. As described herein, the base station 105 may configure the AUL resources to be beam-specific. As a result, each AUL resource set 305 may be specific to one receive beam at the base station 105. For example, a first set of beam-specific AUL resources 305-a may be specific to a first AUL receive beam (e.g., beam 1), a second set of beam-specific AUL resources 305-b may be specific to a second AUL receive beam (e.g., beam 2), and so on. In this case, the AUL resources may be multiplexed such that one AUL resource starts after the end of the previous AUL resource. That is, the AUL resource sets 305-a, 305-b, 305-c may not overlap.

When using the AUL resource configuration 301, the UE 115 may determine that a first set of beam-specific AUL resources 305 is available (e.g., the UE 115 may determine that its transmission may be detected by the base station 105 when the base station 105 uses a receive beam (e.g., beam 1)), and may select the first set of beam-specific AUL resources 305 corresponding to the receive beam at the base station 105 for the corresponding transmit beam (e.g., a beam found through a beam refinement procedure with the base station 105) that the UE 115 is using. Similarly, another UE 115 may select a second set 305-b of beam-specific AUL resources for AUL transmission. The base station 105 may accordingly receive the AUL transmissions from each UE 115 on the respective beam-specific set of AUL resources 305 using different receive beams associated with the different AUL resources 305. As described herein, each AUL resource 305 may include a sensing portion, or a data portion, or both.

The AUL resource configuration 302 may illustrate an AUL resource 305 having both non-overlapping and overlapping portions. For example, the AUL resources may be multiplexed such that when the data portions of the AUL resources 305-d, 305-e, and 305-f overlap each other, the respective sensing portions of the different AUL resources 305 may not overlap. In this case, the base station 105 may monitor the sensing portion of the respective AUL resources 305, and when the base station 105 detects the sensing portion of the AUL resources 305 (e.g., detects a sensing signal or an AUL indicator), the base station 105 may monitor the remaining portion of the AUL resources 305 for a data portion.

As an example, there may be no UE 115 performing an AUL transmission using a first beam-specific set of AUL resources 305-d corresponding to a first receive beam. However, the first UE 115 may perform AUL transmissions using a second set of beam-specific AUL resources 305-e for a second receive beam and the second UE 115 may perform AUL transmissions using a third set of beam-specific AUL resources 305-f for a third receive beam. In this case, the sensing portions of the second beam-specific AUL resource set 305-e and the third beam-specific AUL resource set 305-f may not overlap in time, which may enable the base station 105 to efficiently detect the sensing portions of the beam-specific AUL resources 305.

The base station 105 may attempt to detect the first transmit beam, but since the first beam-specific set of AUL resources 305-d may not carry an AUL transmission, the base station 105 may not detect any sense signals on the first transmit beam. The base station 105 may then attempt to detect the second transmit beam and upon detecting the sensed portion of the second beam-specific AUL resource set 305-e, the base station 105 may continue to monitor the second transmit beam for a subsequent data portion of the second beam-specific AUL resource set 305-e. Because the sensing portion of the third set of beam-specific AUL resources 305-f may overlap in time with the data portion of the AUL resources 305, the base station 105 may not detect an AUL transmission on the third set of beam-specific AUL resources 305-f until after the second received beam is monitored.

In the example of the AUL resource configuration 302, the base station 105 may receive data from only one UE115 at any given time. An advantage of utilizing the technique of AUL resource configuration 302 with overlapping AUL resources may be that the number of resources reserved for AUL transmissions is lower (e.g., compared to the case where the resources do not overlap). In examples where most UEs 115 do not transmit AUL data on the AUL resources and the chances of collision of the AUL transmissions of two UEs 115 configured with overlapping resources are low, this approach may allow successful data transmission with reduced overhead in most cases.

In some cases, the DMRS used for PUSCH transmission may be used for the sensing signals in the sensing portion of each beam-specific AUL resource set 305. The sensing portion may provide processing delays (e.g., for beam changes) for sensing and switching times. In some cases, the order of the receive beams (e.g., the order in which the AUL resources for the respective beams are available in time) may be changed and may be modified over time, e.g., to achieve fairness across the different receive beams (which may correspond to different UEs 115 and ensure fairness for these users accordingly). In some examples, the resources mentioned as beam-specific AUL resources may also be configured as a set of AUL resources per UE115 (e.g., UE-specific), while the particular UE115 may not be aware of the associated receive beam.

Fig. 4A and 4B illustrate examples of AUL resource configurations 401 and 402 supporting AULs employing analog beams in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. Aspects of the AUL resource configurations 401 and 402 may be implemented by the UE 115 and the base station 105, and the UE 115 and the base station 105 may be examples of corresponding devices with respect to the wireless communication systems 100 and 200. The AUL resource configurations 401 and 402 may illustrate examples of AUL resources configured for a user or group of users. User-specific AUL resource configurations 401 and 402 may be desirable when UEs 115 are likely to frequently transmit uplink data on their assigned resources (e.g., semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) applications, such as voice/video calls).

For example, in the AUL resource configuration 401, the AUL resource set 405-a may have overlapping sense portions 410-a, where the data portions 415-a may be non-overlapping and time-multiplexed. In such a case, the base station 105 may support multi-beam sensing capability (e.g., omni-directional sensing) that allows the base station 105 to receive multiple transmit beams from different directions when the sensing portion 410 is transmitted. In this case, UEs 115 may simultaneously transmit their respective AUL transmissions including the sensing signal to base station 105.

Based on the presence of received sensing signals and/or received signal strength, the base station 105 may determine the beam direction of each UE 115 that may be performing an AUL transmission. Thus, the base station 105 may tune its receive beam to align with the determined transmit beam path corresponding to the UE 115 before or during the data portion 415-a, which may allow the base station 105 to receive the respective data portion 415-a from the UE 115. The UE 115 may multiplex its respective data portion 415 along the same transmit beam path as its respective sense signal, wherein the base station 105 may be able to receive the data portion after tuning or retuning its receive beam to align with the respective transmit beam of the UE 115. In some examples, UE 115 may transmit DMRS for both sensing portion 410-a and data portion 415-a due to base station receive beam variations at base station 105.

Additionally or alternatively, and as illustrated in the AUL resource configuration 402, the respective sensing portions 410 for different base station receive beams may be time-multiplexed and non-overlapping for different beams, and the data portions 415 may also be non-overlapping and time-multiplexed. The UE 115 may transmit an AUL indication or sense signal to the base station 105 in one or more of the sensing portions 410, where the plurality of sensing portions 410 are multiplexed such that they do not overlap in time. For example, the sensing portions 410-b, 410-c, and 410-d may each correspond to a different receive beam, and may be multiplexed such that they do not overlap in time. As a result, UEs 115 with uplink data to transmit may transmit in one (or more) of the sensing portions 410 and then in the data portion 415. In some cases, if the UE 115 knows the mapping between the sensing portion 410 and the receive beam at the base station 105, the UE 115 may transmit the sensing signal only on the associated beam. Upon sensing an AUL indicator or sensing signal in one or more of the sensing portions 410, the base station 105 may tune its receive beam to receive the data portion 415-b of the AUL transmission. In some cases, combinations of the various options described herein may be used for different beam groups. For example, different options may be utilized based on the type of data sent in the AUL transmission (e.g., SPS applications such as voice/video calls versus random transmissions such as web browsing).

In some cases, the base station 105 may also indicate (e.g., via DCI or downlink trigger) which UEs 115 (e.g., of the set of UEs 115) may transmit using the set of AUL resources 405. The downlink trigger may be transmitted along a beam path corresponding to the tuned receive beam. Additionally or alternatively, the downlink trigger may be transmitted along a beam path that may be defined using the same beamforming weights as the tuned receive beam. In this case, the UE 115 may monitor the trigger to see if the transmitted sensing signal (or AUL indicator) sent in the sensing portion 410 is accepted. If a trigger signal is received, the UE 115 may continue to perform AUL transmissions.

Fig. 5 illustrates an example of a process flow 500 in a system supporting AUL employing analog beams in accordance with various aspects of the disclosure. In some examples, process flow 500 may implement aspects of wireless communication system 100. For example, the process flow includes base station 105-b and UE 115-c, which may be examples of corresponding devices described with reference to fig. 1 and 2. The process flow 500 may illustrate examples of different AUL resource configurations for implementing efficient AUL transmissions employing analog beams (e.g., in mmW communication systems).

At 505, the base station 105-b may identify a set of AUL resources for one or more UEs 115 (e.g., including UE 115-c). The AUL resources may be identified for use in the AUL transmissions by the UE 115. At 510, the base station 105-b may determine an AUL configuration for the set of AUL resources and one or more AUL receive beams of the base station 105-b. In some examples, the set of AUL resources may be specific to the AUL receive beam of the base station 105-b. In other examples, the AUL resources may not be specific to a particular beam, but may be specific to the UE 115-c or to a group of users. The base station 105-b may configure the set of AUL resources such that the AUL resources may be multiplexed (e.g., time division multiplexed) with a second set of AUL resources, which may be specific to a second AUL receive beam of the base station 105-b.

In some cases, the base station 105-b may configure the beam-specific set of AUL resources to include a first portion and a second portion. The first portion may not overlap with a portion of a second set of AUL resources, which may be specific to a second AUL receive beam of the base station 105-b, and the second portion may at least partially overlap with the second set of AUL resources. Additionally or alternatively, the base station 105-b may configure the beam-specific set of AUL resources to be TDM with the second set of AUL resources. In some cases, the first portion may be used by the UE 115-c to sense signals and the second portion may be used for uplink data.

At 515, the base station 105-b may transmit an AUL configuration including an indication of the set of AUL resources to the UE 115-c. Transmitting the AUL configuration transmission may include transmitting one or more of: an RRC message including an AUL configuration, a DCI including an AUL configuration, or a trigger signal including an AUL configuration. The AUL configuration information may include a trigger configuration, wherein the trigger configuration may include an indication of time/frequency resources associated with the trigger and information for processing the trigger.

At 520, the ue 115-c may identify uplink data for an AUL transmission to the base station 105-b. At 525, the base station 105b may transmit a trigger signal, which may include an indication that the set of AUL resources is available for AUL transmission. At 525, ue 115-c may optionally transmit a sense signal. For example, UE 115-c may transmit the sensing signal without transmitting uplink data. The base station 105-b may detect the sensing signal and, in response, transmit a trigger signal including an indication that the set of AUL resources is available for the UE 115-c for an AUL transmission at 530.

In other cases, the base station 105-b may transmit a trigger signal to indicate to the UE 115-c whether AUL resources are available at 530. The trigger signal may be transmitted using a transmit beam that may correspond to an AUL receive beam used to receive a second portion (data portion) of the AUL transmission. In some cases, the trigger signal may include a sensing resource identifier, UE identity information, a beam identity, an uplink resource allocation corresponding to a beam set, a waveform for PUSCH, or a combination thereof. The transmission information may be carried at least in part by a scrambling code associated with the AUL indicator, an orthogonal cover code associated with the AUL indicator, a cyclic shift associated with the AUL indicator, frequency combs associated with the AUL indicator, or a combination thereof. In some examples, the trigger signal includes RRC messaging, DCI, downlink messaging, PDCCH, reference signal, synchronization signal burst, or a combination thereof.

In some examples, the PDCCH may indicate a subset of the AUL resources available within a beam-specific set of AUL resources. The PDCCH may indicate a second trigger signal associated with a beam-specific AUL resource set. The second trigger signal may be used to determine whether a beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for an AUL transmission by the UE 115-c. Additionally or alternatively, the second trigger may include a second reference signal, or signaling within a synchronization signal burst, or a combination thereof.

At 535, the ue 115-c may determine whether a beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for AUL transmission. The UE 115-c may determine that the beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for AUL transmission based at least in part on one or more of: the trigger signal is received (e.g., at 530), the signal strength of the trigger signal is determined to satisfy a threshold, the presence or absence of the trigger signal, or the trigger signal is decoded.

At 540, the ue 115-c may perform an AUL transmission of uplink data to the base station 105-b using the beam-specific AUL resource set based at least in part on a determination that the beam-specific AUL resource set is available for the AUL transmission (e.g., in the case of a beam-specific AUL resource configuration). Additionally or alternatively, the UE 115-c may perform an AUL transmission using an AUL resource set, wherein a first portion of the AUL transmission includes the sensing signal and a second portion of the AUL transmission includes uplink data (e.g., in the case of a user-specific AUL resource configuration).

In some examples, the UE 115-c may perform the AUL transmission with one or more repetitions of a data portion on the AUL resources. Additionally or alternatively, the UE 115-c may employ one or more reference signals to perform the AUL transmissions, wherein the sensing signal may include the one or more reference signals. The one or more reference signals may include SRS, or DMRS, or a combination thereof. In some cases, the UE 115-c may time-division multiplex the first portion of the AUL transmission with the second portion of the AUL transmission. Additionally or alternatively, the uplink data may include one or more additional reference signals.

In some examples, the base station 105-b may receive an AUL indicator from the UE 115-c within a first portion of the AUL transmission, where the AUL indicator may be multiplexed with uplink data in a first portion of the beam-specific AUL resource set. The AUL indicator may include an indication of a priority of uplink data, a waveform for PUSCH, MCS, RV, time/frequency resource allocation for subsequent uplink data transmissions, UE identity information, transmit beam information, an indication of a preferred receive beam to be used to receive the AUL transmission, or a combination thereof. In some examples, the AUL indicator may be used as a DMRS for uplink data. The AUL receive beam may comprise a mmW communication beam. The transmission information may be carried at least in part by a scrambling code associated with the AUL indicator, an orthogonal cover code associated with the AUL indicator, a cyclic shift associated with the AUL indicator, frequency combs associated with the AUL indicator, or a combination thereof.

The base station 105-b may monitor one or more sensing signals corresponding to the set of AUL beams accordingly. For example, the base station 105-b may monitor in multiple beam directions during a first portion of the AUL transmission. Additionally or alternatively, the base station 105-b may monitor different beam directions in the respective time-division multiplexed portions of the AUL transmission.

In some cases, the base station 105-b may determine 535 an AUL receive beam for receiving the second portion of the AUL transmission. The AUL receive beam may correspond to an AUL resource set, where the AUL receive beam may be determined based at least in part on a sense signal received within the AUL transmission.

Fig. 6 illustrates a block diagram 600 of a wireless device 605 supporting AUL employing an analog beam, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The wireless device 605 may be an example of aspects of the UE 115 as described herein. The wireless device 605 may include a receiver 610, a UE communication manager 615, and a transmitter 620. The wireless device 605 may also include a processor. Each of these components may be in communication with each other (e.g., via one or more buses).

The receiver 610 may receive information such as packets, user data, or control information associated with various information channels (e.g., control channels, data channels, and information related to AULs employing analog beams, etc.). Information may be passed to other components of the device. Receiver 610 may be an example of aspects of transceiver 935 described with reference to fig. 9. The receiver 610 may utilize a single antenna or a set of antennas.

The UE communication manager 615 may be an example of aspects of the UE communication manager 915 described with reference to fig. 9. The UE communication manager 615 and/or at least some of its various subcomponents may be implemented in hardware, software executed by a processor, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software executed by a processor, the functions of UE communication manager 615 and/or at least some of its various sub-components may be performed by a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described in this disclosure.

The UE communication manager 615 and/or at least some of its various sub-components may be physically located in various locations, including being distributed such that portions of the functionality are implemented by one or more physical devices in different physical locations. In some examples, the UE communication manager 615 and/or at least some of its various subcomponents may be separate and distinct components in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. In other examples, according to various aspects of the disclosure, the UE communication manager 615 and/or at least some of its various subcomponents may be combined with one or more other hardware components (including, but not limited to, an I/O component, a transceiver, a network server, another computing device, one or more other components described in the disclosure, or a combination thereof).

The UE communication manager 615 may receive an AUL configuration from the base station 105 that includes an indication of a set of AUL resources for the UE 115, wherein the set of AUL resources is specific to an AUL receive beam of the base station 105; identifying uplink data for an AUL transmission to the base station 105; and determining whether a beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for an AUL transmission by the UE 115. The UE communication manager 615 may perform an AUL transmission of uplink data to the base station 105 using the beam-specific set of AUL resources based on a determination that the beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for the AUL transmission.

In some examples, the UE communication manager 615 may also receive an AUL configuration from the base station 105 that includes an indication of the set of AUL resources for the UE 115; identifying uplink data for an AUL transmission to the base station 105; and performing an AUL transmission using the AUL resource set, wherein a first portion of the AUL transmission includes the sense signal and a second portion of the AUL transmission includes the uplink data.

Transmitter 620 may transmit signals generated by other components of the device. In some examples, the transmitter 620 may be co-located with the receiver 610 in a transceiver module. For example, the transmitter 620 may be an example of aspects of the transceiver 935 described with reference to fig. 9. The transmitter 620 may utilize a single antenna or a set of antennas.

Fig. 7 illustrates a block diagram 700 of a wireless device 705 supporting AUL employing an analog beam in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Wireless device 705 may be an example of aspects of wireless device 605 or UE 115 as described with reference to fig. 6. The wireless device 705 may include a receiver 710, a UE communication manager 715, and a transmitter 720. The wireless device 705 may also include a processor. Each of these components may be in communication with each other (e.g., via one or more buses).

The receiver 710 may receive information such as packets, user data, or control information associated with various information channels (e.g., control channels, data channels, and information related to the AUL employing an analog beam, etc.). Information may be passed to other components of the device. Receiver 710 may be an example of aspects of transceiver 935 described with reference to fig. 9. The receiver 710 may utilize a single antenna or a set of antennas.

The UE communication manager 715 may be an example of aspects of the UE communication manager 915 described with reference to fig. 9. The UE communication manager 715 may also include a UE AUL configuration manager 725, a data manager 730, a UE AUL resource manager 735, and an AUL transmission component 740.

The UE AUL configuration manager 725 may receive an AUL configuration from the base station 105 that includes an indication of a set of AUL resources for the UE 115, wherein the set of AUL resources is specific to an AUL receive beam of the base station 105. In other cases, the AUL configuration may include an indication of the set of AUL resources specific to the UE 115. In some cases, receiving the AUL configuration includes receiving one or more of: an RRC message including an AUL configuration, a DCI including an AUL configuration, or a trigger signal including an AUL configuration. In some cases, the AUL configuration includes a trigger signal configuration that is used to determine time/frequency resources associated with the trigger signal and may be used to process the trigger signal. In some cases, the AUL receive beam comprises a mmW communication beam.

The data manager 730 may identify uplink data for AUL transmissions to the base station 105. The UE AUL resource manager 735 may determine whether a beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for the AUL transmission by the UE 115. For example, the UE AUL resource manager 735 may determine, based on the trigger signal, that a beam-specific set of AUL resources are available for an AUL transmission by the UE 115, wherein the AUL transmission is performed based on the received trigger signal. Additionally or alternatively, the UE AUL resource manager 735 may determine that a set of beam-specific AUL resources are available for AUL transmission based on decoding the trigger signal.

In some cases, determining that the set of beam-specific AUL resources is available for AUL transmission includes determining that the set of beam-specific AUL resources is available based on a signal strength of the trigger signal meeting a threshold. In some cases, determining whether the beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for AUL transmission includes determining that the beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for AUL transmission based on the presence or absence of a trigger signal. In some cases, the beam-specific AUL resource set is TDM with a second AUL resource set, where the second AUL resource set is specific to a second AUL receive beam of the base station 105.

The AUL transmission component 740 can perform an AUL transmission of uplink data to the base station 105 using the beam-specific AUL resource set based on a determination that the beam-specific AUL resource set is available for the AUL transmission. In some examples, the AUL transmission component 740 may perform an AUL transmission using the set of AUL resources, wherein a first portion of the AUL transmission includes the sensing signal and a second portion of the AUL transmission includes the uplink data. In some cases, the AUL transmission component 740 may perform the AUL transmission based on the received trigger signal.

In some cases, the first portion of the AUL transmission includes a first portion and a second portion, wherein the first portion may not overlap with the second set of AUL resources and the second portion may at least partially overlap with the second set of AUL resources. In some cases, the second set of AUL resources may be specific to the second AUL receive beam of the base station 105. In some cases, performing the AUL transmission includes transmitting uplink data within a first portion and a second portion of the AUL transmission, and transmitting an AUL indicator within the first portion, wherein the AUL indicator is multiplexed with the uplink data. In some cases, performing the AUL transmission includes performing the AUL transmission with one or more repetitions of uplink data on the set of AUL resources. In some examples, performing the AUL transmission includes performing the AUL transmission with one or more reference signals within a first portion of the AUL transmission, wherein the sense signal may include the one or more reference signals. In some cases, the one or more reference signals include SRS, or DMRS, or a combination thereof.

In some examples, the first portion of the AUL transmission may be TDM with the second portion, and wherein the uplink data includes one or more additional reference signals. The sensing signal may include an AUL indicator including transmission information including an indication of priority of uplink data, a waveform for PUSCH, MCS, RV, time/frequency resource allocation for subsequent data transmission, UE identity information, transmit beam information, an indication of a receive beam to be used to receive the AUL transmission, or a combination thereof. In some cases, the transmission information is carried at least in part by a scrambling code associated with the AUL indicator, an orthogonal cover code associated with the AUL indicator, a cyclic shift associated with the AUL indicator, frequency combs associated with the AUL indicator, or a combination thereof.

Transmitter 720 may transmit signals generated by other components of the device. In some examples, the transmitter 720 may be co-located with the receiver 710 in a transceiver module. For example, transmitter 720 may be an example of aspects of transceiver 935 described with reference to fig. 9. Transmitter 720 may utilize a single antenna or a set of antennas.

Fig. 8 illustrates a block diagram 800 of a UE communication manager 815 supporting AUL employing analog beams, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. UE communication manager 815 may be an example of aspects of UE communication manager 615, UE communication manager 715, or UE communication manager 915 described with reference to fig. 6, 7, and 9. The UE communication manager 815 may include a UE AUL configuration manager 820, a data manager 825, a UE AUL resource manager 830, an AUL transmission component 835, a trigger manager 840, a decoder 845, and an AUL indicator component 850. Each of these modules may communicate with each other directly or indirectly (e.g., via one or more buses).

The UE AUL configuration manager 820 may receive an AUL configuration from the base station 105 that includes an indication of an AUL resource set for the UE 115, wherein the AUL resource set is specific to an AUL receive beam of the base station 105. In other examples, the AUL configuration may include an indication of a set of AUL resources specific to the UE 115. In some cases, receiving the AUL configuration includes receiving one or more of: an RRC message including an AUL configuration, a DCI including an AUL configuration, or a trigger signal including an AUL configuration. In some cases, the AUL configuration includes a trigger signal configuration that is used to determine time/frequency resources associated with the trigger signal and may be used to process the trigger signal. In some cases, the AUL receive beam comprises a mmW communication beam.

The data manager 825 may identify uplink data for AUL transmissions to the base station 105. The UE AUL resource manager 830 may determine whether a beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for the AUL transmission by the UE 115. For example, the UE AUL resource manager 830 may determine that a beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for an AUL transmission by the UE 115 based on the trigger signal, wherein the AUL transmission is performed based on the received trigger signal. Additionally or alternatively, the UE AUL resource manager 830 may determine that a beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for AUL transmission based on decoding the trigger signal.

The AUL transmission component 835 may perform an AUL transmission of uplink data to the base station 105 using the beam-specific set of AUL resources based on a determination that the beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for the AUL transmission. In some examples, the AUL transmission component 835 may perform an AUL transmission using the set of AUL resources, wherein a first portion of the AUL transmission includes the sensing signal and a second portion of the AUL transmission includes the uplink data. In some cases, the AUL transmission component 835 may perform AUL transmission based on the received trigger signal.

In some cases, the first portion of the AUL transmission includes at least the sensing signal and the second portion of the AUL transmission includes uplink data. In some examples, the first portion may not overlap with a portion of a second set of AUL resources, and the second portion may at least partially overlap with the second set of AUL resources, wherein the second set of AUL resources is specific to a second AUL receive beam of the base station 105. In some cases, performing the AUL transmission includes performing the AUL transmission with one or more repetitions of uplink data on the set of AUL resources. In some examples, performing the AUL transmission includes performing the AUL transmission with one or more reference signals within a first portion of the AUL transmission, wherein the sense signal may include the one or more reference signals. In some cases, the one or more reference signals include SRS, or DMRS, or a combination thereof.

The trigger manager 840 may receive a trigger associated with a beam-specific set of AUL resources from the base station 105. For example, the trigger signal manager 840 may receive a trigger signal in response to the transmitted sense signal, the trigger signal including an indication that the set of AUL resources is available for an AUL transmission by the UE 115. In some cases, the trigger signal includes one or more of: RRC messaging, DCI, downlink messaging, PDCCH, reference signal, or signaling within a synchronization signal burst. In some cases, the PDCCH indicates a subset of the AUL resources available within the beam-specific set of AUL resources. In some examples, the PDCCH indicates a second trigger signal associated with the beam-specific AUL resource set, and wherein the second trigger signal is used to determine whether the beam-specific AUL resource set is available for an AUL transmission by the UE 115. In some cases, the second trigger signal includes a reference signal, or signaling within a synchronization signal burst, or a combination thereof. In some cases, the trigger signal includes a sensing resource identifier, UE identity information, a beam identity, an uplink resource allocation corresponding to a beam set, a waveform for PUSCH, or a combination thereof.

The decoder 845 may decode the trigger signal. The AUL indicator component 850 may transmit the AUL indicator within a first portion of the AUL transmission, wherein the AUL indicator is multiplexed with uplink data in the first portion of the AUL transmission. In some cases, the AUL indicator is used as a DMRS for uplink data. In some cases, the AUL indicator includes transmission information including an indication of a priority of uplink data, a waveform for PUSCH, MCS, RV, time/frequency resource allocation for subsequent uplink data transmissions, UE identity information, transmit beam information, an indication of a preferred receive beam to be used to receive the AUL transmission, or a combination thereof. In some cases, the transmission information is carried at least in part by a scrambling code associated with the AUL indicator, an orthogonal cover code associated with the AUL indicator, a cyclic shift associated with the AUL indicator, frequency combs associated with the AUL indicator, or a combination thereof.

Fig. 9 illustrates a diagram of a system 900 including a device 905 that supports AUL employing an analog beam, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The device 905 may be or include an example of the wireless device 605, the wireless device 705, or the UE 115 as described herein (e.g., with reference to fig. 6 and 7). The device 905 may include components for two-way voice and data communications, including components for transmitting and receiving communications, including a UE communication manager 915, a processor 920, a memory 925, software 930, a transceiver 935, an antenna 940, and an I/O controller 945. These components may be in electronic communication via one or more buses (e.g., bus 910). The device 905 may be in wireless communication with one or more base stations 105.

The processor 920 may include intelligent hardware devices (e.g., general purpose processors, DSPs, central Processing Units (CPUs), microcontrollers, ASICs, FPGAs, programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic components, discrete hardware components, or any combinations thereof). In some cases, processor 920 may be configured to operate a memory array using a memory controller. In other cases, the memory controller may be integrated into the processor 920. The processor 920 may be configured to execute computer readable instructions stored in memory to perform various functions (e.g., functions or tasks that support AULs employing analog beams).

The memory 925 may include Random Access Memory (RAM) and Read Only Memory (ROM). The memory 925 may store computer-readable, computer-executable software 930 comprising instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to perform the various functions described herein. In some cases, memory 925 may include, among other things, a basic input/output system (BIOS) that may control basic hardware or software operations, such as interactions with peripheral components or devices.

The software 930 may include code for implementing aspects of the disclosure, including code for supporting AUL employing an analog beam. The software 930 may be stored in a non-transitory computer readable medium such as system memory or other memory. In some cases, software 930 may not be directly executed by a processor, but may (e.g., when compiled and executed) cause a computer to perform the functions described herein.

The transceiver 935 may communicate bi-directionally via one or more antennas, wired or wireless links, as described herein. For example, transceiver 935 may represent a wireless transceiver and may communicate bi-directionally with another wireless transceiver. The transceiver 935 may also include a modem to modulate packets and provide the modulated packets to the antenna for transmission, as well as demodulate packets received from the antenna. In some cases, the wireless device may include a single antenna 940. However, in some cases, the device may have more than one antenna 940, which may be capable of concurrently transmitting or receiving multiple wireless transmissions.

The I/O controller 945 may manage the input and output signals of the device 905. The I/O controller 945 may also manage peripheral devices that are not integrated into the device 905. In some cases, the I/O controller 945 may represent a physical connection or port to an external peripheral device. In some cases, the I/O controller 945 may utilize an operating system, such as Or another known operating system. In other cases, the I/O controller 945 may represent or interact with a modem, keyboard, mouse, touch screen, or similar device. In some cases, the I/O controller 945 may be implemented as part of a processor. In some cases, a user may interact with the device 905 via the I/O controller 945 or via hardware components controlled by the I/O controller 945.

Fig. 10 illustrates a block diagram 1000 of a wireless device 1005 supporting AUL employing an analog beam in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The wireless device 1005 may be an example of aspects of the base station 105 as described herein. The wireless device 1005 may include a receiver 1010, a base station communication manager 1015, and a transmitter 1020. The wireless device 1005 may also include a processor. Each of these components may be in communication with each other (e.g., via one or more buses).

The receiver 1010 may receive information such as packets, user data, or control information associated with various information channels (e.g., control channels, data channels, and information related to AULs employing analog beams, etc.). Information may be passed to other components of the device. Receiver 1010 may be an example of aspects of transceiver 1335 described with reference to fig. 13. The receiver 1010 may utilize a single antenna or a set of antennas.

The base station communication manager 1015 may be an example of aspects of the base station communication manager 1315 described with reference to fig. 13. The base station communication manager 1015 and/or at least some of its various subcomponents may be implemented in hardware, software executed by a processor, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software executed by a processor, the functions of base station communication manager 1015 and/or at least some of its various sub-components may be performed by a general purpose processor, DSP, ASIC, FPGA or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof, designed to perform the functions described in this disclosure.

The base station communication manager 1015 and/or at least some of its various subcomponents may be physically located at various locations, including being distributed such that portions of the functionality are implemented by one or more physical devices at different physical locations. In some examples, the base station communication manager 1015 and/or at least some of its various subcomponents may be separate and distinct components in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. In other examples, according to various aspects of the present disclosure, base station communication manager 1015 and/or at least some of its various subcomponents may be combined with one or more other hardware components (including, but not limited to, an I/O component, a transceiver, a network server, another computing device, one or more other components described in the present disclosure, or a combination thereof).

The base station communication manager 1015 may identify a set of AUL resources for the UE 115; determining an AUL configuration for the set of AUL resources and one or more AUL receive beams of the base station, wherein the set of AUL resources is specific to an AUL receive beam of the base station 105; transmitting an AUL configuration to the UE 115, the AUL configuration including an indication of a beam-specific set of AUL resources; and receiving an AUL transmission from the UE 115 according to an AUL configuration, wherein the AUL transmission is received using the beam-specific set of AUL resources and the AUL receive beam.

The base station communication manager 1015 may also transmit to the UE 115 an AUL configuration including an indication of the set of AUL resources for the UE 115; receiving an AUL transmission from the UE 115 over the set of AUL resources, wherein a first portion of the AUL transmission includes a sensing signal and a second portion of the AUL transmission includes uplink data; and determining an AUL receive beam for receiving a second portion of the AUL transmission, the AUL receive beam corresponding to the set of AUL resources, wherein the AUL receive beam is determined based on the sensing signal.

Transmitter 1020 may transmit signals generated by other components of the device. In some examples, transmitter 1020 may be co-located with receiver 1010 in a transceiver module. For example, transmitter 1020 may be an example of aspects of transceiver 1335 described with reference to fig. 13. Transmitter 1020 may utilize a single antenna or a set of antennas.

Fig. 11 illustrates a block diagram 1100 of a wireless device 1105 supporting an AUL employing an analog beam in accordance with aspects of the disclosure. The wireless device 1105 may be an example of aspects of the wireless device 1005 or base station 105 described with reference to fig. 10. The wireless device 1105 may include a receiver 1110, a base station communication manager 1115, and a transmitter 1120. The wireless device 1105 may also include a processor. Each of these components may be in communication with each other (e.g., via one or more buses).

The receiver 1110 may receive information such as packets, user data, or control information associated with various information channels (e.g., control channels, data channels, and information related to AULs employing analog beams, etc.). Information may be passed to other components of the device. Receiver 1110 can be an example of aspects of transceiver 1335 described with reference to fig. 13. The receiver 1110 may utilize a single antenna or a set of antennas.

The base station communication manager 1115 may be an example of aspects of the base station communication manager 1315 described with reference to fig. 13. The base station communication manager 1115 may also include a base station AUL resource manager 1125, a base station AUL configuration manager 1130, an AUL reception component 1135, and a reception beam manager 1140.

The base station AUL resource manager 1125 may identify a set of AUL resources for the UE 115 and determine that a set of beam-specific AUL resources are available for the UE 115 to perform AUL transmissions. The base station AUL configuration manager 1130 may determine an AUL configuration for the set of AUL resources and one or more AUL receive beams of the base station 105, wherein the set of AUL resources is specific to the AUL receive beams of the base station 105. In some examples, the base station AUL configuration manager 1130 may transmit an AUL configuration to the UE 115 that includes an indication of the beam-specific set of AUL resources. In some cases, the base station AUL configuration manager 1130 may configure the beam-specific set of AUL resources to TDM (and not overlap) with a second set of AUL resources that is specific to a second AUL reception beam of the base station 105.

Additionally or alternatively, the base station AUL configuration manager 1130 can configure the beam-specific set of AUL resources to include a first portion and a second portion, the first portion not overlapping a portion of the second set of AUL resources and the second portion at least partially overlapping the second set of AUL resources, wherein the second set of AUL resources is specific to a second AUL receive beam of the base station 105. In some cases, the base station AUL configuration manager 1130 may transmit to the UE 115 an AUL configuration that includes an indication of the set of AUL resources for the UE 115. In some cases, transmitting the AUL configuration includes transmitting one or more of: an RRC message including an AUL configuration, a DCI including an AUL configuration, or a trigger signal including an AUL configuration.

The AUL reception component 1135 may receive an AUL transmission from the UE 115 according to an AUL configuration, wherein the AUL transmission is received using a beam-specific set of AUL resources and an AUL reception beam. Additionally or alternatively, the AUL reception component 1135 may receive an AUL transmission on the set of AUL resources from the UE 115, wherein a first portion of the AUL transmission includes the sensing signal and a second portion of the AUL transmission includes the uplink data. In some cases, the AUL reception component 1135 may receive the AUL transmission based on the transmitted trigger signal.

In some cases, the AUL transmission includes one or more repetitions of uplink data on the set of AUL resources. In some examples, the sensing signal includes one or more reference signals transmitted within a first portion of the AUL transmission. In some cases, the first portion and the second portion of the AUL transmission are TDM, and wherein the uplink data includes one or more additional reference signals. In some cases, the sensing signal includes an AUL indicator that includes transmission information including an indication of a priority of uplink data, a waveform for PUSCH, MCS, RV, time/frequency resource allocation for subsequent data transmissions, UE 115 identity information, transmit beam information, an indication of a receive beam to be used to receive the AUL transmission, or a combination thereof.

The receive beam manager 1140 may determine an AUL receive beam for receiving the second portion of the AUL transmission. In some cases, the AUL receive beam may correspond to an AUL resource set, and the AUL receive beam may be determined based on the sensing signal, wherein determining the AUL receive beam to receive the second portion of the AUL transmission is based on monitoring.

The transmitter 1120 may transmit signals generated by other components of the device. In some examples, the transmitter 1120 may be co-located with the receiver 1110 in a transceiver module. For example, the transmitter 1120 may be an example of aspects of the transceiver 1335 described with reference to fig. 13. Transmitter 1120 may utilize a single antenna or a set of antennas.

Fig. 12 illustrates a block diagram 1200 of a base station communication manager 1215 supporting AUL employing analog beams in accordance with aspects of the disclosure. The base station communication manager 1215 may be an example of aspects of the base station communication manager 1315 described with reference to fig. 10, 11, and 13. The base station communication manager 1215 may include a base station AUL resource manager 1220, a base station AUL configuration manager 1225, an AUL reception component 1230, a reception beam manager 1235, a trigger signal component 1240, an AUL indicator receiver 1245, and a sense signal component 1250. Each of these modules may communicate with each other directly or indirectly (e.g., via one or more buses).

The base station AUL resource manager 1220 may identify a set of AUL resources for the UE 115 and determine that a set of beam-specific AUL resources are available for the UE 115 to perform AUL transmissions. The base station AUL configuration manager 1225 may determine an AUL configuration for the set of AUL resources and one or more AUL receive beams of the base station 105, wherein the set of AUL resources is specific to the AUL receive beams of the base station 105. In some examples, the base station AUL configuration manager 1225 may transmit an AUL configuration to the UE 115 that includes an indication of the beam-specific set of AUL resources. In some cases, the base station AUL configuration manager 1225 may configure the beam-specific set of AUL resources to TDM (and not overlap) with a second set of AUL resources that is specific to a second AUL of the base station 105 receiving the beam.

Additionally or alternatively, the base station AUL configuration manager 1225 may configure the beam-specific AUL resource set to include a first portion and a second portion, the first portion not overlapping a portion of the second AUL resource set and the second portion at least partially overlapping the second AUL resource set, wherein the second AUL resource set is specific to a second AUL reception beam of the base station 105. In some cases, the base station AUL configuration manager 1225 may transmit to the UE 115 an AUL configuration including an indication of the set of AUL resources for the UE 115. In some cases, transmitting the AUL configuration includes transmitting one or more of: an RRC message including an AUL configuration, a DCI including an AUL configuration, or a trigger signal including an AUL configuration.

The AUL reception component 1230 may receive an AUL transmission from the UE 115 in accordance with an AUL configuration, wherein the AUL transmission is received using a beam-specific set of AUL resources and an AUL reception beam. Additionally or alternatively, the AUL reception component 1230 may receive an AUL transmission from the UE 115 over a set of AUL resources, wherein a first portion of the AUL transmission includes a sense signal and a second portion of the AUL transmission includes uplink data. In some cases, the AUL reception component 1230 may receive the AUL transmission based on the transmitted trigger signal.

In some cases, the AUL transmission includes one or more repetitions of uplink data on the set of AUL resources. In some examples, the sensing signal includes one or more reference signals transmitted within a first portion of the AUL transmission. In some cases, the first portion and the second portion of the AUL transmission are TDM, and the uplink data includes one or more additional reference signals. In some cases, the sensing signal includes an AUL indicator that includes transmission information including an indication of a priority of uplink data, a waveform for PUSCH, MCS, RV, time/frequency resource allocation for subsequent data transmissions, UE 115 identity information, transmit beam information, an indication of a receive beam to be used to receive the AUL transmission, or a combination thereof.

The receive beam manager 1235 may determine an AUL receive beam for receiving the second portion of the AUL transmission, the AUL receive beam corresponding to the set of AUL resources. In some cases, the AUL receive beam is determined based on the sensing signal, and determining the AUL receive beam to receive the second portion of the AUL transmission is based on monitoring.

The trigger signal component 1240 may transmit a trigger signal comprising an indication that a beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for AUL transmission based on the determination that the beam-specific set of AUL resources is available. The trigger signal component 1240 can transmit a trigger signal using a transmit beam corresponding to the AUL receive beam. In some cases, the trigger signal component 1240 may transmit a trigger signal configuration within the AUL configuration, wherein the trigger signal configuration includes an indication of time/frequency resources associated with the trigger signal and information for processing the trigger signal. In some examples, the trigger signal component 1240 may transmit a trigger signal in response to a received sense signal that includes an indication that the set of AUL resources is available for AUL transmission.

In some cases, the trigger signal includes RRC messaging, DCI, downlink messaging, PDCCH, reference signal, synchronization signal burst, or a combination thereof. In some cases, the trigger signal is transmitted using a transmit beam corresponding to an AUL receive beam used to receive the second portion of the AUL transmission. In some cases, the trigger signal includes a sensing resource identifier, UE identity information, a beam identity, an uplink resource allocation corresponding to a beam set, a waveform for PUSCH, or a combination thereof.

The AUL indicator receiver 1245 may receive an AUL indicator from the UE 115 within a first portion of an AUL transmission, wherein the AUL indicator is multiplexed with uplink data in a first portion of a beam-specific set of AUL resources. In some cases, the AUL indicator includes an indication of a priority of uplink data, a waveform for PUSCH, MCS, RV, time/frequency resource allocation for subsequent uplink data transmissions, UE identity information, transmit beam information, an indication of a preferred receive beam to be used to receive the AUL transmission, or a combination thereof.

The sense signal component 1250 can monitor one or more sense signals corresponding to an AUL beam set, wherein the beam direction set is monitored in a first portion of the AUL transmission. Additionally or alternatively, the sense signal component 1250 can monitor one or more sense signals corresponding to the set of AUL beams, wherein different beam directions are monitored in respective TDM portions of the AUL transmission.

Fig. 13 illustrates a diagram of a system 1300 including a device 1305 that supports AUL employing an analog beam in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Device 1305 may be or include examples of components of base station 105 as described herein (e.g., with reference to fig. 1). Device 1305 may include components for bi-directional voice and data communications including components for transmitting and receiving communications, including a base station communications manager 1315, a processor 1320, memory 1325, software 1330, a transceiver 1335, an antenna 1340, a network communications manager 1345, and an inter-station communications manager 1350. These components may be in electronic communication via one or more buses (e.g., bus 1310). Device 1305 may communicate wirelessly with one or more UEs 115.

Processor 1320 may include intelligent hardware devices (e.g., a general purpose processor, a DSP, a CPU, a microcontroller, an ASIC, an FPGA, a programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic components, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof). In some cases, processor 1320 may be configured to operate the memory array using a memory controller. In other cases, the memory controller may be integrated into the processor 1320. Processor 1320 may be configured to execute computer readable instructions stored in memory to perform various functions (e.g., functions or tasks that support AULs employing analog beams).

Memory 1325 may include RAM and ROM. The memory 1325 may store computer-readable, computer-executable software 1330 comprising instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to perform the various functions described herein. In some cases, memory 1325 may include, among other things, a BIOS that may control basic hardware or software operations, such as interactions with peripheral components or devices.

The software 1330 may include code for implementing aspects of the present disclosure, including code for supporting AULs employing analog beams. The software 1330 may be stored in a non-transitory computer readable medium such as system memory or other memory. In some cases, software 1330 may not be directly executed by a processor, but may cause a computer to perform the functions described herein (e.g., when compiled and executed).

The transceiver 1335 may communicate bi-directionally via one or more antennas, wired or wireless links, as described herein. For example, transceiver 1335 may represent a wireless transceiver and may communicate bi-directionally with another wireless transceiver. The transceiver 1335 may also include a modem to modulate packets and provide the modulated packets to an antenna for transmission, as well as demodulate packets received from the antenna. In some cases, the wireless device may include a single antenna 1340. However, in some cases, the device may have more than one antenna 1340, which may be capable of concurrently transmitting or receiving multiple wireless transmissions.

The network communication manager 1345 may manage communication with the core network (e.g., via one or more wired backhaul links). For example, the network communication manager 1345 may manage the delivery of data communications by a client device (such as one or more UEs 115).

The inter-station communication manager 1350 may manage communication with other base stations 105 and may include a controller or scheduler for controlling communication with UEs 115 in cooperation with other base stations 105. For example, inter-station communication manager 1350 may coordinate scheduling of transmissions to UEs 115 for various interference mitigation techniques, such as beamforming or joint transmission. In some examples, inter-station communication manager 1350 may provide an X2 interface within Long Term Evolution (LTE)/LTE-a wireless communication network technology to provide communication between base stations 105.

Fig. 14 shows a flow chart that illustrates a method 1400 for employing an AUL of an analog beam in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The operations of the method 1400 may be implemented by the UE 115 or components thereof as described herein. For example, the operations of method 1400 may be performed by a UE communication manager as described with reference to fig. 6-9. In some examples, UE 115 may execute a set of codes for controlling the functional components of a device to perform the functions described herein. Additionally or alternatively, UE 115 may use dedicated hardware to perform aspects of the functions described herein.

At 1405, the UE 115 may receive an AUL configuration from the base station 105 that includes an indication of a set of AUL resources for the UE 115, wherein the set of AUL resources is specific to an AUL receive beam of the base station 105. 1405 may be performed according to the methods described herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1405 may be performed by a UE AUL configuration manager as described with reference to fig. 6-9.

At 1410, the ue 115 may identify uplink data for an AUL transmission to the base station 105. The operations of 1410 may be performed according to the methods described herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1410 may be performed by a data manager as described with reference to fig. 6-9.

At 1415, the UE 115 may determine whether a beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for the UE 115 to perform AUL transmission. 1415 may be performed according to the methods described herein. In certain examples, aspects of the operation of 1415 may be performed by a UE AUL resource manager as described with reference to fig. 6-9.

At 1420, the ue 115 may perform an AUL transmission of uplink data to the base station 105 using the beam-specific set of AUL resources based at least in part on the determination that the beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for the AUL transmission. Operations of 1420 may be performed according to the methods described herein. In certain examples, aspects of the operation of 1420 may be performed by the AUL transmission component described with reference to fig. 6-9.

Fig. 15 shows a flow chart illustrating a method 1500 for employing an AUL of an analog beam in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The operations of the method 1500 may be implemented by the UE 115 or components thereof as described herein. For example, the operations of the method 1500 may be performed by a UE communication manager as described with reference to fig. 6-9. In some examples, UE 115 may execute a set of codes to control the functional elements of the device to perform the functions described herein. Additionally or alternatively, UE 115 may use dedicated hardware to perform aspects of the functions described herein.

At 1505, the UE 115 may receive an AUL configuration from the base station 105 that includes an indication of a set of AUL resources for the UE 115, wherein the set of AUL resources is specific to an AUL receive beam of the base station 105. The operations of 1505 may be performed according to the methods described herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1505 may be performed by a UE AUL configuration manager as described with reference to fig. 6-9.

At 1510, the ue 115 may identify uplink data for AUL transmissions to the base station 105. 1510 may be performed according to the methods described herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1510 may be performed by a data manager as described with reference to fig. 6-9.

At 1515, the ue 115 may receive a trigger signal associated with the beam-specific set of AUL resources from the base station 105. The operations of 1515 may be performed according to methods described herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1515 may be performed by a trigger signal manager as described with reference to fig. 6-9.

At 1520, the UE 115 may determine, based at least in part on the trigger signal, that a set of beam-specific AUL resources are available for the AUL transmission by the UE 115, wherein the AUL transmission is performed based on the received trigger signal. Operations of 1520 may be performed according to the methods described herein. In certain examples, aspects of the operation of 1520 may be performed by a UE AUL resource manager as described with reference to fig. 6-9.

At 1525, the ue 115 may perform an AUL transmission of uplink data to the base station 105 using the beam-specific set of AUL resources based at least in part on the determination that the beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for the AUL transmission. Operations of 1525 may be performed according to the methods described herein. In certain examples, aspects of the operation of 1525 may be performed by the AUL transmission component described with reference to fig. 6-9.

Fig. 16 illustrates a flow chart that is known to a method 1600 for employing an AUL of an analog beam in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The operations of method 1600 may be implemented by base station 105 or components thereof as described herein. For example, the operations of method 1600 may be performed by a base station communication manager as described with reference to fig. 10-13. In some examples, the base station 105 may execute a set of codes to control the functional elements of the device to perform the functions described herein. Additionally or alternatively, the base station 105 may use dedicated hardware to perform aspects of the functions described herein.

At 1605, the base station 105 may identify a set of AUL resources for the UE 115. The operations of 1605 may be performed according to the methods described herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1605 may be performed by a base station AUL resource manager as described with reference to fig. 10-13.

At 1610, the base station 105 may determine an AUL configuration for the set of AUL resources and one or more AUL receive beams of the base station 105, wherein the set of AUL resources is specific to the AUL receive beams of the base station 105. The operations of 1610 may be performed according to the methods described herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1610 may be performed by a base station AUL configuration manager as described with reference to fig. 10 through 13.

At 1615, the base station 105 may transmit an AUL configuration including an indication of the beam-specific set of AUL resources to the UE 115. The operations of 1615 may be performed according to the methods described herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1615 may be performed by a base station AUL configuration manager as described with reference to fig. 10 through 13.

At 1620, the base station 105 may receive an AUL transmission from the UE 115 according to an AUL configuration, wherein the AUL transmission is received using a beam-specific set of AUL resources and an AUL receive beam. 1620 may be performed according to the methods described herein. In certain examples, aspects of the operation of 1620 may be performed by the AUL receiving component described with reference to fig. 10-13.

Fig. 17 shows a flow chart that illustrates a method 1700 for employing an AUL of an analog beam in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The operations of method 1700 may be implemented by base station 105 or components thereof as described herein. For example, the operations of method 1700 may be performed by a base station communication manager as described with reference to fig. 10-13. In some examples, the base station 105 may execute a set of codes to control the functional elements of the device to perform the functions described herein. Additionally or alternatively, the base station 105 may use dedicated hardware to perform aspects of the functions described herein.

At 1705, the base station 105 may identify a set of AUL resources for the UE 115. The operations of 1705 may be performed according to the methods described herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1705 may be performed by a base station AUL resource manager as described with reference to fig. 10-13.

At 1710, the base station 105 may determine an AUL configuration for the set of AUL resources and one or more AUL receive beams of the base station 105, wherein the set of AUL resources is specific to the AUL receive beams of the base station 105. Operations of 1710 may be performed according to the methods described herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1710 may be performed by a base station AUL configuration manager as described with reference to fig. 10 through 13.

At 1715, the base station 105 may transmit an AUL configuration including an indication of the beam-specific set of AUL resources to the UE 115. 1715 may be performed according to the methods described herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1715 may be performed by the base station AUL configuration manager as described with reference to fig. 10-13.

At 1720, the base station 105 may determine that a beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for an AUL transmission by the UE 115. The operations of 1720 may be performed according to the methods described herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1720 may be performed by a base station AUL resource manager as described with reference to fig. 10-13.

At 1725, the base station 105 may transmit a trigger signal including an indication that the beam-specific set of AUL resources is available for AUL transmission based at least in part on the determination that the beam-specific set of AUL resources is available. The operations of 1725 may be performed according to the methods described herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1725 may be performed by a trigger signal component as described with reference to fig. 10-13.

At 1730, the base station 105 may receive an AUL transmission from the UE 115 according to an AUL configuration, wherein the AUL transmission is received using a beam-specific set of AUL resources and an AUL receive beam. 1730 may be performed according to the methods described herein. In certain examples, aspects of the operation of 1730 may be performed by the AUL receiving component described with reference to fig. 10-13.

Fig. 18 illustrates a flow chart that describes a method 1800 for employing an AUL for an analog beam in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The operations of method 1800 may be implemented by UE 115 or components thereof as described herein. For example, the operations of method 1800 may be performed by a UE communication manager as described with reference to fig. 6-9. In some examples, UE 115 may execute a set of codes to control the functional elements of the device to perform the functions described herein. Additionally or alternatively, UE 115 may use dedicated hardware to perform aspects of the functions described herein.

At 1805, the UE 115 may receive an AUL configuration from the base station 105 that includes an indication of an AUL resource set for the UE 115. The operations of 1805 may be performed according to the methods described herein. In certain examples, aspects of the operation of 1805 may be performed by a UE AUL configuration manager as described with reference to fig. 6-9.

At 1810, the ue 115 may identify uplink data for AUL transmission to the base station 105. 1810 may be performed according to methods described herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1810 may be performed by a data manager as described with reference to fig. 6 through 9.

At 1815, the ue 115 may perform an AUL transmission using the set of AUL resources, wherein a first portion of the AUL transmission includes the sensing signal and a second portion of the AUL transmission includes the uplink data. The operations of 1815 may be performed according to the methods described herein. In certain examples, aspects of the operation of 1815 may be performed by the AUL transmission component described with reference to fig. 6-9.

Fig. 19 illustrates a flow chart that is known to a method 1900 for employing an AUL of an analog beam in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The operations of method 1900 may be implemented by base station 105 or components thereof as described herein. For example, the operations of method 1900 may be performed by a base station communication manager as described with reference to fig. 10-13. In some examples, the base station 105 may execute a set of codes to control the functional elements of the device to perform the functions described herein. Additionally or alternatively, the base station 105 may use dedicated hardware to perform aspects of the functions described herein.

At 1905, the base station 105 may transmit to the UE 115 an AUL configuration including an indication of the set of AUL resources for the UE 115. The operations of 1905 may be performed according to the methods described herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1905 may be performed by a base station AUL configuration manager as described with reference to fig. 10-13.

At 1910, the base station 105 may receive an AUL transmission from the UE 115 over the set of AUL resources, wherein a first portion of the AUL transmission includes the sensing signal and a second portion of the AUL transmission includes the uplink data. 1910 may be performed according to the methods described herein. In certain examples, aspects of the operation of 1910 may be performed by the AUL receiving component described with reference to fig. 10-13.

At 1915, the base station 105 may determine an AUL receive beam for receiving a second portion of the AUL transmission, the AUL receive beam corresponding to the set of AUL resources, wherein the AUL receive beam is determined based at least in part on the sensing signal. 1915 may be performed according to the methods described herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1915 may be performed by a receive beam manager as described with reference to fig. 10-13.

It should be noted that the methods described herein describe possible implementations, and that the operations and steps may be rearranged or otherwise modified and other implementations are possible. Further, aspects from two or more methods may be combined.

The techniques described herein may be used for various wireless communication systems such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA), and other systems. A CDMA system may implement a radio technology such as CDMA2000, universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), and the like. CDMA2000 covers IS-2000, IS-95, and IS-856 standards. The IS-2000 version may be generally referred to as CDMA2000 1X, etc. IS-856 (TIA-856) IS commonly referred to as CDMA2000 1xEV-DO, high Rate Packet Data (HRPD), or the like. UTRA includes Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) and other variants of CDMA. TDMA systems may implement radio technologies such as global system for mobile communications (GSM).

OFDMA systems may implement radio technologies such as Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, flash-OFDM, and the like. UTRA and E-UTRA are part of Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). LTE, LTE-a and LTE-a Pro are UMTS releases using E-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A, LTE-a Pro, NR and GSM are described in the literature from an organization named "third generation partnership project" (3 GPP). CDMA2000 and UMB are described in the literature from an organization named "third generation partnership project 2" (3 GPP 2). The techniques described herein may be used for the systems and radio technologies mentioned above as well as for other systems and radio technologies. Although aspects of the LTE, LTE-A, LTE-a Pro or NR system may be described for exemplary purposes and LTE, LTE-A, LTE-a Pro or NR terminology may be used in much of the description, the techniques described herein may also be applied to applications other than LTE, LTE-A, LTE-a Pro or NR applications.

Macro cells generally cover a relatively large geographic area (e.g., an area of several kilometers in radius) and may allow unrestricted access by UEs 115 with service subscription with the network provider. The small cell may be associated with a lower power base station 105 (as compared to the macro cell), and the small cell may operate in the same or different (e.g., licensed, unlicensed, etc.) frequency band as the macro cell. According to various examples, small cells may include picocells, femtocells, and microcells. The picocell may, for example, cover a smaller geographic area and may allow unrestricted access by UEs 115 with service subscription with the network provider. A femto cell may also cover a smaller geographic area (e.g., a residence) and may be provided restricted access by UEs 115 associated with the femto cell (e.g., UEs 115 in a Closed Subscriber Group (CSG), UEs 115 of users in a residence, etc.). An eNB for a macro cell may be referred to as a macro eNB. An eNB for a small cell may be referred to as a small cell eNB, a pico eNB, a femto eNB, or a home eNB. An eNB may support one or more (e.g., two, three, four, etc.) cells and may also support communications using one or more component carriers.

One or more wireless communication systems 100 described herein may support synchronous or asynchronous operation. For synchronous operation, the base stations 105 may have similar frame timing, and transmissions from different base stations 105 may be approximately aligned in time. For asynchronous operation, the base stations 105 may have different frame timings, and transmissions from different base stations 105 may not be aligned in time. The techniques described herein may be used for synchronous or asynchronous operation.

The information and signals described herein may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout the above description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

The various illustrative blocks and modules described in connection with the disclosure herein may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other Programmable Logic Device (PLD), discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices (e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration).

The functions described herein may be implemented in hardware, software executed by a processor, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software for execution by a processor, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Other examples and implementations are within the scope of the disclosure and the appended claims. For example, due to the nature of software, the functions described herein may be implemented using software executed by a processor, hardware, firmware, hardwired or any combination thereof. Features that implement the functions may also be physically located in various places including being distributed such that parts of the functions are implemented at different physical locations.

Computer-readable media includes both non-transitory computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. Non-transitory storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and not limitation, non-transitory computer-readable media can comprise Random Access Memory (RAM), read Only Memory (ROM), electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM), flash memory, compact Disk (CD) ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other non-transitory medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code means in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer, or a general purpose or special purpose processor. Any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital Subscriber Line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of medium. Disk (disc) and disc (disc), as used herein, includes CD, laser disc, optical disc, digital Versatile Disc (DVD), floppy disk and blu-ray disc where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above are also included within the scope of computer-readable media.

As used herein (including in the claims), an "or" used in an item enumeration (e.g., an item enumeration with a phrase such as "at least one of" or "one or more of" attached) indicates an inclusive enumeration, such that, for example, enumeration of at least one of A, B or C means a or B or C or AB or AC or BC or ABC (i.e., a and B and C). Also, as used herein, the phrase "based on" should not be construed as referring to a closed set of conditions. For example, exemplary steps described as "based on condition a" may be based on both condition a and condition B without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. In other words, as used herein, the phrase "based on" should be read in the same manner as the phrase "based at least in part on".

In the drawings, similar components or features may have the same reference numerals. Further, individual components of the same type may be distinguished by following the reference label by a dash and a second label that distinguishes among the similar components. If only the first reference number is used in the specification, the description may be applied to any one of the similar components having the same first reference number, regardless of the second reference number, or other subsequent reference numbers.

The description set forth herein in connection with the appended drawings describes example configurations and is not intended to represent all examples that may be implemented or fall within the scope of the claims. The term "exemplary" as used herein means "serving as an example, instance, or illustration," and does not mean "better than" or "over other examples. The detailed description includes specific details to provide an understanding of the described technology. However, the techniques may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the concepts of the described examples.

The description herein is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the disclosure. Various modifications to the disclosure will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other variations without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Thus, the disclosure is not intended to be limited to the examples and designs described herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communication at a User Equipment (UE), comprising:

Receiving, from a network entity, an Autonomous Uplink (AUL) configuration including an indication of an AUL resource set for the UE;

identifying uplink data for an AUL transmission to the network entity; and

the method includes performing the AUL transmission using the set of AUL resources, wherein a first portion of the AUL transmission includes a sense signal including one or more reference signals, and wherein a second portion of the AUL transmission includes the uplink data including one or more additional reference signals, wherein the AUL transmission is performed with the one or more reference signals, and wherein the first portion of the AUL transmission is Time Division Multiplexed (TDM) with the second portion.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the AUL transmission comprises:

the AUL transmission is performed with one or more repetitions of the uplink data on the set of AUL resources.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more reference signals comprise Sounding Reference Signals (SRS), or demodulation reference signals (DMRS), or a combination thereof.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a trigger signal including a second indication that the set of AUL resources is available for an AUL transmission by the UE in response to the transmitted sense signal; and

The AUL transmission is performed based at least in part on the received trigger signal.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the trigger signal comprises a sensing resource identifier, UE identity information, a beam identity, an uplink resource allocation corresponding to a beam set, a waveform to be used for a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), or a combination thereof.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensing signal comprises an AUL indicator comprising transmission information including an indication of a priority of the uplink data, a waveform for a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), a Redundancy Version (RV), a time/frequency resource allocation for subsequent data transmissions, UE identity information, transmit beam information, an indication of a receive beam to be used to receive the AUL transmission, or a combination thereof.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the transmission information is carried at least in part by a scrambling code associated with the AUL indicator, an orthogonal cover code associated with the AUL indicator, a cyclic shift associated with the AUL indicator, frequency combs associated with the AUL indicator, or a combination thereof.

8. An apparatus for wireless communication at a User Equipment (UE), comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor; and

instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to:

identifying uplink data for an AUL transmission to the network entity; and

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the instructions for performing the AUL transmission are executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to:

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the one or more reference signals comprise Sounding Reference Signals (SRS), or demodulation reference signals (DMRS), or a combination thereof.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to:

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the trigger signal comprises a sensing resource identifier, UE identity information, a beam identity, an uplink resource allocation corresponding to a beam set, a waveform to be used for a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), or a combination thereof.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the sensing signal comprises an AUL indicator comprising transmission information including an indication of a priority of the uplink data, a waveform for a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), a Redundancy Version (RV), a time/frequency resource allocation for subsequent data transmissions, UE identity information, transmit beam information, an indication of a receive beam to be used to receive the AUL transmission, or a combination thereof.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the transmission information is carried at least in part by a scrambling code associated with the AUL indicator, an orthogonal cover code associated with the AUL indicator, a cyclic shift associated with the AUL indicator, frequency combs associated with the AUL indicator, or a combination thereof.

15. An apparatus for wireless communication at a User Equipment (UE), comprising:

means for receiving, from a network entity, an Autonomous Uplink (AUL) configuration including an indication of an AUL resource set for the UE;

means for identifying uplink data for an AUL transmission to the network entity; and

means for performing the AUL transmission using the set of AUL resources, wherein a first portion of the AUL transmission includes a sensing signal including one or more reference signals, and wherein a second portion of the AUL transmission includes the uplink data including one or more additional reference signals, wherein the AUL transmission is performed with the one or more reference signals, and wherein the first portion of the AUL transmission is Time Division Multiplexed (TDM) with the second portion.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein means for performing the AUL transmission comprises:

means for performing the AUL transmission using one or more repetitions of the uplink data on the set of AUL resources.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein:

the one or more reference signals include Sounding Reference Signals (SRS), or demodulation reference signals (DMRS), or a combination thereof.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising:

means for receiving a trigger signal in response to the transmitted sense signal comprising a second indication that the set of AUL resources is available for an AUL transmission by the UE; and

means for performing the AUL transmission based at least in part on the received trigger signal.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the trigger signal comprises a sensing resource identifier, UE identity information, a beam identity, an uplink resource allocation corresponding to a beam set, a waveform to be used for a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), or a combination thereof.

20. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the sensing signal comprises an AUL indicator comprising transmission information including an indication of a priority of the uplink data, a waveform for a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), a Redundancy Version (RV), a time/frequency resource allocation for subsequent data transmissions, UE identity information, transmit beam information, an indication of a receive beam to be used to receive the AUL transmission, or a combination thereof.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the transmission information is carried at least in part by a scrambling code associated with the AUL indicator, an orthogonal cover code associated with the AUL indicator, a cyclic shift associated with the AUL indicator, frequency combs associated with the AUL indicator, or a combination thereof.

22. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code for wireless communication at a User Equipment (UE), the code comprising instructions executable by a processor to:

identifying uplink data for an AUL transmission to the network entity; and

23. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 22, wherein the instructions for performing the AUL transmission are executable by the processor to:

24. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 22, wherein the instructions for performing the AUL transmission are executable by the processor to:

the AUL transmission is performed with the one or more reference signals within the first portion of the AUL transmission, the sense signals including the one or more reference signals.